The idea of playing a video game inside The Boondock Saints universe is enough to excite most fans of Troy Duffy’s films. The recent announcement at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas that a game is finally coming has sparked the interest of fans and gamers worldwide. While actors Sean Patrick Flanery (Connor McManus), Norman Reedus (Murphy McManus), and David Della Rocco (Rocco) were on-hand to celebrate the announcement, one voice that was missing was that of Boondock Saints writer/director/creator Troy Duffy who did not attend the event.
Duffy voices true excitement about the project even though he’ll admit he’s not the biggest gaming fan. “I’m not a video game player, I stopped that back in the day,” Duffy notes. “But Boondock is a great fit for comic books and video games. We had always been thinking about it but I’ve just been waiting for the right guys to come along. Last year at SXSW I happened to meet the guys at Critical Mass. They were all fans which I knew I wanted for the game’s builders – people who really knew the universe well.”
The development for the game is still in its very early stages and it is unknown what systems the game will be released on. Duffy is thrilled about the possibilities of being able to go anywhere once inside this world. “We’re targeting the downloadable formats,” Duffy says. “Go anywhere and do anything. Open up new venues and new worlds that go hand-in-hand with the Boondock universe.”
The SXSW announcement also came with the revelation that Rocco, Reedus, and Flanery would be providing the voices for their characters in the game. Duffy’s hopes go beyond the core three actors when it comes to the voice acting on the game. “Depending if we use their character in the game I’d like to use every single voice of every actor that we can,” he says. “Our fans know Boondock so well, they know what the characters sound like. (Willem) Dafoe has got that voice and you can’t really fake that. So I’d like to see as many of the actors participate in this as possible.”
As for more information on the game Duffy says that he’ll “Know more in a month or two. The whole thing is at this crux where several key decisions have to be made. Once we make those we’ll know where we’re at. There was a lot of interest generated from SXSW to help out here. We basically have to figure out who else we are going to partner up with.”
The game may soon be joined by even more of the McManus brothers in the form of a Boondock Saints TV show. “We’re trying to make that happen now. There’s alot of interest in it. We’re going back and forth with a company on this.”
Duffy continues, “The idea of a television show has always kind of excited me because cable-based television shows are blowing networks out of the water these days. That’s the venue you want this in. There’s alot more creative freedom, there’s now network hangups about violence and language. The first decision made for the television show is that it has to be cable-based. You can’t go to a network on something like this. But a company has stepped up and we are in negotiations.”
By Ryan “Irish Rican” McLelland
I would love to see either a very cinematic game like the Uncharted series or an open world/sand box type game but instead of running over innocents and shooting cops you get to wack scumbag gangsters. Can’t wait to preorder this if it comes to xbox!