How was Troy Duffy afford so much for such a newcomer?
 

I watched the movie Overnight (2003) again, especially since it was suggested that I watch it on here, in a recent thread. After watching it again and refreshing myself, I wonder, how is it Harvey Weinstein, gave Troy Duffy a 15 million dollar budget to direct his first screenplay?

Usually when someone writes a screenplay, if a big producer is even interested, they do not tell the writer they can direct it as well, if that writer, hasn't directed anything movie or short film in his life. Weinstein also gave Duffy the power to retain final cut.

This just seems weird to me. Was Weinstein just having an off week, where he was busy and said sure I'll give him 15 million and final cut, and wasn't really thinking perhaps?

It just seemed weird to me, but what do you think?

Re: How was Troy Duffy afford so much for such a newcomer?
 

Didn't you already ask about this not too long ago?

In any case, I think it was mainly to do with Weinstein having developed a reputation for nurturing indie filmmakers and how that expanded from promoting those who had already made notorious breakout hits (e.g. Tarantino, Rodriguez, Kevin Smith) to actively seeking out similar talent and snapping it up before anyone else did (and being able to spin it that way would certainly make him look like a good producer). For all Weinstein knew, Duffy just might have written the next Reservoir Dogs (and judging by the sheer number of Tarantinoesque movies that did get produced throughout the '90s and '00s, I imagine a lot of executives took that into consideration when giving scripts the green light) so he may have gotten overconfident and promised $15m and final cut if it meant he could have what was supposedly a very sought-after script (then again Duffy being Duffy chased him off anyway). It's not like Weinstein had the best business instincts anyway.

Re: How was Troy Duffy afford so much for such a newcomer?
 

Oh okay thanks. Sorry if I wrote it before, I wasn't sure so I did a search for if I did, but could not find anything in the search. Well I guess I just didn't think that Troy Duffy was a new filmmaker on the scene for Harvey to snap up, but rather a new writer. I didn't think that Harvey would have considered him a filmmaker. But Weinstein was the biggest producer in Hollywood, or so they say, so if that's true, I felt he must have been doing something right.