Southie (1998)

Interesting facts

Southie is a 1999 American crime thriller film directed by John Shea starring Donnie Wahlberg. It also stars Rose McGowan, Anne Meara, Jimmy Cummings, Lawrence Tierney, Robert Wahlberg, Will Arnett, Shea, and Amanda Peet. The film centers around Danny Quinn, a former "street kid" from South Boston, returning home to find his family deeper into organized crime than when he left, and his struggles not to fall back into his previous life.

Production

Southie was written by two young screenwriters from Boston, Jimmy Cummings and Dave McLaughlin. It was originally entitled "Brass Ring".

The lead role was originally offered to Mark Wahlberg but he was not available following the success of the 1997 film Boogie Nights. Cummings' younger brother, Dan, suggested Donnie Wahlberg for the leading role. Shea spent a day with Ron Howard in New York as Howard completed the sound mixing on the 1996 film Ransom, in which Wahlberg had a supporting role. Shea liked what he saw and Wahlberg was offered the role.

Shooting was scheduled for February 1997, in the middle of a very cold and brutal Boston winter. The film was shot with a full union crew in twenty-four days.

The film ends as the real St. Patrick's Day parade goes through South Boston. The filmmakers were given permission by Thomas Menino, the Mayor of Boston, to shoot the parade. Directors of photography Allen Baker and Michael Bulter used five 35mm cameras to capture the Southie neighborhood.

After almost a year of post-production editing and scoring by composer Wayne Sharp, the filmmakers changed the film's name to Southie at the suggestion of Donnie Wahlberg. It was the first feature film ever shot entirely in the old South Boston neighborhood, a place once described as "the last white ghetto in America".

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