In the remote Pacific Northwest, mercenary Nick Boon is trying to run from his past, however, that history is about to catch up with him. As Boon struggles with redemption, he finds himself with no choice but to help a widow and her son defend themselves against a criminal kingpin in his effort to atone for a life of violence.
Just when he thinks he’s out, he gets pulled back in.
Co-written by Neal McDonough who also stars as the title character, Boon is co-written and directed by Derek Presley. The duo also co-wrote Red Stone, starring McDonough and Presley directed, which was just released in December of last year. The script, funding and distribution came together so quickly that the duo could shoot the two films in under a year during COVID-19, leading to a change in the ending on Red Stone to accommodate the idea for a sequel.
Hollywood has been known to pigeonhole talent. If you’re an action star, you get cast in action movies. If you’re an actor, you don’t write or direct (Clint Eastwood, for example, didn’t direct his first feature until he was 41). While talent can get out from under these expectations, it takes hustle. For McDonough, Boon will be the first film he's written that is being produced. However, his love for writing has long been present, and he's even previously sold some scripts.
“I’m driven to do things,” McDonough shares. “When we did Red Stone, I had an idea for part two. My wife (Ruve McDonough) found the financing for the second film and secured a lot of the actors.” McDonough also stated that his ability to work with Presley at breaking down stories helped put the sequel on the fast track. Accomplishing Boon and having several other films in the pipeline, McDonough is now more confident that he can tell the stories he wants to tell, the way he wants to tell them.
McDonough is a devout Catholic and he wants his beliefs to infuse the stories he wants to share. “Films don’t talk about God much anymore and I wanted to see it [again],” he says. “Boon is a guy that has to do the right thing, but how does he stand up in the face of God? We’re all sinners, so it’s how we get up off the canvas and make ourselves a hero. I’ve always liked those themes.”
The close partnership between McDonough and Presley, and being able to co-write the film, allowed McDonough to add more of those layers to Nick Boon on his road to redemption, forced to face the guilty people he used to protect.
In Red Stone, the theme centered on questioning whether one was doing the right thing. Boon has to face the idea of being paid to kill a kid, a teenager. How does a religious person come to terms with what they are doing is wrong, and yet must continue to kill to save this kid?
“Boon faces this crisis as he realizes he had been doing the wrong thing in life,” McDonough says. “We all have our baggage and sometimes we don’t have the power to give up our addictions.”
McDonough looks to his own life to further explore these themes, confiding that in his personal life, he had to find the bravery to give up alcohol. He's now sober and in better shape than he was 15 years ago.
“I want to be a role model. These are the things I write toward, and they will always have this theme: How can we be better today than yesterday?”
Action must advance the story and not just be a fireworks spectacle. In Boon, McDonough and Presley had to make sure they had great characters that set up compelling action sequences. The ending gun battle, for instance, had to be a culmination of everything that came before it. Knowing that the action is paramount in this film, they could write an action set piece that brought enemies together for the greater good and take on the antagonists in a way believable to the audience and true to the characters.
McDonough has an envious process when it comes to writing, allowing him to create scripts incredibly fast and ready to shoot.
“I let it fester in my brain for a while and, as soon as I annoy Ruve with the idea enough, she says go for a long walk and dictate,” McDonough shares.
Because the average page-to-screentime is about a minute, McDonough figures he could create nearly 30 pages on a half-hour walk. And he did, writing the first act of Boon after Ruve told him to take that walk. But it isn’t an exact translation from notes to screenplay.
“Only I can make sense of what I wrote and then I break it down and send it to someone to type it all out, usually Derek (Presley),” McDonough says. From these notes, Presley can send back a solid draft and they keep developing from there.
How well does this work? According to McDonough, he and Presley are working on a new script. “I called him up, spewed out the story: the beginning, middle and end, and we walked through the whole film. We started last Friday and we’ll be done by next Friday.”
With the success of developing and financing Boon so quickly, one can expect this partnership to allow them to make a boatload of movies moving forward. McDonough may soon be known more as a prolific writer than as an actor.
Boon stars Neal McDonough, Tommy Flanagan, Christiane Seidel, and Christina Ochoa. The film will release in theaters, on demand and digital April 1, 2022.