10 Fascinating Backstories Behind Famous Movies
6. The Boondock Saints Was Inspired By A Drug Dealer Stealing Money From A Corpse
Seriously, cult classic The Boondock Saints was inspired by an incident whereby writer Troy Duffy witnessed a drug dealer stealing money from a corpse in his apartment block in the early '90s.
According to Duffy, he arrived home one day to see a dead woman being wheeled out of her apartment, and Duffy spotted the local drug dealer on the rob. The scenario resulted in Duffy - then an unknown, working in a bar - renting a computer and writing his script, which he penned as a response to what he saw to be a sick world.
There's more to this story, however, which gives it an added edge of fascination: Duffy eventually managed to sell his script to Harvey Weinstein of Miramax, who believed that he might be the next Quentin Tarantino. Through Duffy's arrogance and ego, though, he managed to alienate pretty much everybody in Hollywood - and Weinstein, fed up, had him blacklisted.
The film eventually got made, of course, but not as the high-budget, $15 million feature intended.
Duffy's brief rise and super fast fall in Hollywood has come to be known as something of a cautionary tale (which can be seen in the fantastic documentary film Overnight). Basically, though, the lesson is: don't f*ck with Harvey Weinstein.