Troy Duffy

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Troy Duffy (born 8 June 1971 in Hartford, Connecticut) is an American director, screenwriter and musician. Duffy became a known personality in Hollywood after starting and effectively ending his career as both a film maker and musician over a period of roughly three years.

[edit] Movie career

Duffy moved to Los Angeles in his twenties to pursue a music career with his band, The Brood. While looking for gigs, he took work at a local bar where he wrote the script for the motion picture The Boondock Saints during his break periods. The script, which was heavily influenced by the wake of post Quentin Tarantino films, featured two brothers in Boston dedicated to the killing of mafia thugs. He successfully marketed the film to Harvey Weinstein of Miramax Films who bought the screenplay for US$300,000 with the intention of filming the movie on a $15,000,000 budget. However they eventually dropped the project, leaving Duffy without prospects.

Still believing that the film was a hot commodity, Duffy convinced agents at the William Morris Agency to help him market it to other studios, and it was eventually picked up by a small company who offered to produce the film for less than half of Miramax's original budget. Desperate to get the project rolling and convinced that it would eventually prove a major success, thus giving him an upper hand over the people that had previously panned him, Duffy took the deal, shooting the film over several weeks on location. After shooting, the film was "shopped" at the Cannes film festival in the hopes of finding a distributor.

After months of sitting on the shelf, the film was picked up by a small studio for theatrical release - it was shown in fewer than 10 theaters countrywide, and for a period of only 7 days.

Duffy's infamy was cemented in the documentary Overnight, which he initially authorized and endorsed. In Overnight, Duffy's self-absorbed destructive ego takes over, as he betrays friends and family members.

[edit] Music career

The hubbub originally surrounding the film and the fact that Duffy's band would be producing its soundtrack created a small but significant interest in the group, which had previously been ignored. The band consisted of Duffy, his brother Taylor, and two friends, Gordon "Gordie" Clark, and Jimi Jackson. The members frequented several North Hollywood taverns and were appropriately featured in the bar scene of the movie The Boondock Saints.

After several failed attempts to secure a record contract, the band finally won a deal with a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, who produced their first album (released as The Boondock Saints). After nearly a year on the market, the album sold fewer than 700 copies, and the label dropped the band. The band members are also featured in the documentary Overnight, being subjected to verbal abuse by Duffy.

Duffy's story is also featured in an episode of E's Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

Through word of mouth "The Boondock Saints" DVD went on to gross over $30,000,000 in sales.