CraveOnline: This question would be a spoiler for Boondock II [so skip ahead, but I imagine if you’re reading about the Boondock Saints II director’s cut you’ll want to know this]: Is Willem Dafoe interested in coming back for a third?
Troy Duffy: I haven’t spoken to Willem. He’s always been there for us on Boondocks. That’s all agents and producers making deals, but Willem’s always been very loyal when it came to Boondock.
Boondock II came out before the whole Occupy movement. Have you found that in recent years more people have responded to the Boondock Saints movies?
Yeah, as a matter of fact it was right around that time, you’re right. I’ve been following that movement. Strange that you should mention it because in Boondock III, I decided to do my own little investigation into what was going on in the world when 1 hit. We were all very frustrated with our system of justice. This was after O.J. Simpson and a bunch of other things and people start to lose faith in our system of law enforcement and our justice system. Boondock kind of hit that wave. People’s frustration today, we’re seeing organic movements from the streets just like Occupy. I don’t know if you every heard of the 1%er Cop Movement.
I’ll have to look that up but it sounds great.
The 1%er Cops are against regulation for the 1% patch a motorcycle club may wear on their uniforms. They have refused, especially in Arizona, to do anything that violates the Constitution: shake down illegal immigrants or people suspected of being illegal immigrants, remove people from their houses who got screwed on bad home loans. So we’re seeing people just kind of fight the power a little bit more these days than we did in the past. Also the public’s becoming much more well informed. So that is sort of one of the things we’re tapping into on III, this idea that almost the people will have a bit of a role in this.
As a fan of action movies, how do you feel about the way the genre has gone all shaky cam?
I don’t know, to me when look at the scene, if it’s frantic you do some handheld or if it’s smoother you can do dolly track. I don’t really subscribe to that thing. Handheld shaky has its place as far as I’m concerned but if it’s actually being used to cover up bad things or bits of set that aren’t even there, they’re using it as a device then yeah, it kind of gets a little crazy. You get dizzy sometimes if they go overboard with it. But the thing I’ve noticed in action films is they’re all about comic books now. It’s like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Iron Man. Those are our action movies now and that’s cool. That’s the kind of thing that the industry’s going through right now, but I always love the indie action crime thrillers. I’d love to see more of a resurgence in that type of stuff, rather than these big Hollywood epic comic book hero things.
They still do The Expendables and Jason Statham makes more of those kinds of movies.
Yeah, it’s out there but I think the genre is sort of being overtaken in a lot of ways by these huge sci-fi comic book action things. That’s what we’re being bombarded with when we flip on the TV.
What are the other screenplays you’re working on?
I have written, we’ve set this up right now, it may actually get done before Boondock III,who knows? But I’ve written a script called The Blood Spoon Council which is essentially about a group of vigilantes that hunt down, abduct and execute serial killers. It’s getting a little heat right now so we’re going to start going out to some actors and figure that out.
That’s an interesting title. What does the spoon signify?
Well, if I told you that I’d be blowing the whole film. The spoon’s the symbol that takes meaning later on. Essentially, when they ID a serial murderer, they abduct him, take him out and give the FBI directions and there’s a spoonful of blood wrapped in saran wrap on the end that IDs the DNA and stuff like that so they can tell what’s going on. Basically, that spoon has significance in the title that you want to see the movie to get it.
Suffice it to say, there’s a reason that title stood out to me and we will find out exactly why.
That’s correct. I kind of like the standout titles where you don’t really know what’s going on. The same with Boondock Saints. I can’t tell you how many times people in the industry tried to get me to change that name. Now I think fans couldn’t imagine it being named anything else even though they themselves at first didn’t know what the hell that was.
Do you remember any of the bad suggestions they gave you for alternate titles?
Yeah, there was one called Unholy, there was The Boston Saints. There were some suggestions but they were basically trying to get me to change it and come up with something else. So I thought of a few duds myself. Ultimately they just kept Boondock because it just felt right.
Are you involved in other work besides filmmaking?
Yeah, I work on motorcycles, ride motorcycles in my spare time and woodworking. I make little things for the house, friends and family. Stuff like that.
So you’re still a full time filmmaker?
Yeah, I more call it, you’re filmmaker when you’re actually making a film. I’ve gone long swaths of time without doing it. I’m a writer mostly in the time in between. I’ve written several scripts and tried to get them set up. Blood Spoon’s got heat under it right now so we’re going to go forward with that but now I’m knee deep in writing Boondock III which is turning out very good in my opinion and will be very exciting for the fans. In the times in between you’re actually doing films, I’m essentially a writer first and foremost.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
