Thursday, December 18, 2008

The Rise and Fall in Hollywood

I just finished the documentary "Overnight." Now if you have never heard of the film, I suggest you go watch it. It blew me away and now I can do nothing more than think about it. "Overnight" is a documentary about Troy Duffy. Troy Duffy is a loud, arrogant man from the streets of Boston. Troy has a dream to make it big in the world of music with his band "The Brood." Their dream is so big that they decide to put their normal lives on hold and move out to Los Angeles, California - where all dreams are made. Right? Well it really started out that way for the Duff-man (sorry, couldn't resist a Simpsons reference). Troy gets a gig at an LA biker bar called J. Sloans. While he is out there, Troy gets the idea to begin writing a screenplay. He writes the screenplay during breaks between his shift at the bar. He names the screenplay "The Boondock Saints." Ever heard of it?

Well as the documentary depicts, Troy is discovered by Harvey Weinstein, one of Hollywood's most powerful movie men. Actually, he may be the most powerful movie man in the business. Harvey digs the script and offers Troy $300,000 for exclusive rights. Sounds like a sweet deal? It gets even better. Harvey also wants Troy to direct it. Even better, Harvey wants to buy the bar that Troy works at and they will be partners profiting off the ole drinking hole. That is a fantastic deal! But wait, there is even more! Troy's band is also getting the rights to create the soundtrack for this mega-movie. It seems that nothing can go wrong for this guy. His first script ever written is picked up and all his music dreams are coming true.

Of course, this is not how it will stay. As things have it, the deal falls through and his band is left without a deal. Troy is left fighting to make his movie. He ends up making it with an independent production company. More things go wrong and his movie is only shown in five theaters in the U.S. for a week. The home video sales kill though, with over six million sold. But in his deal with the production company, he sees no money from these sales.

So what this documentary shows is the fastest rise and fall of anyone in the history of the film business. A guy that had it all lost it all just as fast. Although he had some bad breaks, his attitude through it all as well as his unbelievable ego burns plenty of bridges. If you have dreams of going to Hollywood, take a look at this documentary. It is the ultimate what-not-to-do when you get there.

This film really put a lot of ideas in my mind. I think everyone has that dream from time to time to just screw it all and move to Los Angeles. Everyone has had the dream to be a famous actor or a highly respected director. As a journalist and a lover of writing, I have had the dream of writing a screenplay. Nothing would be more amazing than to see my own thoughts on a big screen. Watching something like this makes you step back a little bit from the dream and see what the reality of the situation can really be. Many production companies will buy a script just to make sure that no one else can buy it. They will then just put the script on the shelf and let it collect dust. Nothing would be more degrading than that. I respect Troy and his ambitions to push his movie but he did it in the ultimate bonehead way. You can never disrespect big movie studios like that, because they can make sure you have no future in the business. They did this with Troy. Troy has not been linked to another movie since "The Boondock Saints."

It just goes to show you just how difficult it can be to make it in the business. I daydream all the time thinking about new ideas and things that could be liked by masses, but I never really take the time to envision just how hard that dream could be to achieve.

In the end, "Overnight" offered a first-hand view of the Hollywood business. There are definitely more hardships than I would have thought. But what would I know - I'm just a college student from Ohio.

If you are interested in "Overnight," you should definitely check it out. I have embedded the trailer on here so go crazy:

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