Overnight
Peace Arch Entertainment
Cast: Troy Duffy
Extras: Deleted Scenes, Cast and Crew Bios, Featurette, Trailer
Rating:
Having seen the film ’The Boondock Saints’ and hearing the stories behind the story of how this film came to be, I decided to view the documentary ’Overnight’.
This is the story of Troy Duffy, a Boston bartender who gets a shot at stardom, after then-powerhouse of Miramax, Harvey Weinstein, decides to purchase Troy’s screenplay for ’The Boondock Saints’. Harvey not only agrees to buy the screenplay, he also makes a deal with Troy’s band to produce the films soundtrack as well as the purchase of a sizable portion of the establishment that Troy tends bar at, so they can become business partners in the venture. Almost ’Overnight’, Troy becomes the latest big-break story around Hollywood, from celebrities that hang out in his bar to who he will cast in his film; Troy manages to appear on the cover of almost every trade magazine in Hollywood. Sounds like the perfect Cinderella-style story, right? Well, not exactly. Before casting is complete and a single frame of film is shot, Troy showcases his, now legendary, moronic side. From burning bridges with Hollywood executives to shouting out demands, all the while claiming that both he and his band are going to be the biggest thing ever! And that’s about where this story takes a sad turn of events.
Harvey decides to put ’The Boondock Saints’ into turnaround, a basic death sentence in Hollywood, leaving the fate of Troy’s film in limbo. After the deal completely dissolves at Miramax, Troy eventually finds an independent film company to finance the project, at half of the 15 Million that Miramax was proposing, leaving Troy with no choice but to accept the offer. Once the film is finally complete and has a rather small opening at a few theaters, Troy discovers that Harvey appears to have blacklisted him, as no studio in Hollywood would even touch this project, leaving the film without a major distributor. Later, ’The Boondock Saints’ would go on to be a cult favorite in the home video market and Troy would all but vanish from the Hollywood scene.
Think Film presents ’Overnight’ on DVD in a 1.85:1 non-anamorphic transfer that is at best, video quality. Portions of the presentation suffer from various video ailments that the source material exhibits, such as bleeding, smearing and aliasing. Overall the presentation is good and not too bothersome as you become engrossed in the information being presented.
The soundtrack for ’Overnight’ is available as a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track and provides the material with an adequate presentation. Again, this is documentary material that began with some videotaped portions, so the soundtrack includes sections where the audio is weak and thin-sounding, but overall provides an appropriate soundstage.
Extras included on the disc are a selection of deleted scenes, cast and crew biographies, a Director’s interview on ’Backstage with Barry Nolan,’ CN8 and a theatrical trailer.
I urge any aspiring filmmaker out there to view this documentary; this should be the basic teaching of what not to do when given the chance to turn your screenplay and dream into a reality. ’Overnight’ simply shows what can happen when your ego appears to be larger than your screenplay’s storyline. You will have a hard time trying to find something to like about Troy Duffy as he displays the true meaning of the word idiot and leading him to deal with the consequences of biting the hand that feeds him.