A Gary Thompson production

"BOONDOCK SAINTS" writer-director Troy Duffy is famous for being an overnight failure in Hollywood, an example of how not to do things.

There's even a documentary about the fall of Duffy called "Overnight," put together by former associates who were among the many discarded by the self-inflating Duffy during his meteoric rise and even more meteoric descent during the making of "Boondock Saints" 10 years ago.

The only problem with that scenario is that Duffy hasn't actually failed. "Overnight," released in 2004, may have felt like an epitaph (supported by the paltry receipts and terrible reviews that accompanied "Boondock's" shabby 2000 theatrical release), but the movie survived its near-death experience.

"When we screened it for the industry, one acquisitions guy told me that, basically, the movie had been blacklisted on U.S. screens," said Duffy, who'd offended many Hollywood big shots, and whose movie about two executioners with long coats and guns came out just months after the Columbine school slaughter.

The DVD, though, has provided a means of resurrection for both Duffy and his maligned movie - the comically violent story of two Irish-Catholic Boston brothers (Norman Reedus, Sean Patrick Flannery) who decide to kill all the criminals in their city, dispatching each victim with a slo-mo execution and a prayer.

"Boondock Saints" has acquired a significant following via DVD sales and rentals - amounting to an estimated $50 million in the decade since its release.

Duffy didn't get any of that money, but he did get a measure of vindication, and the opportunity to make a sequel, with most of the original cast. It opens tomorrow.

Duffy, though known for his bottomless love of self, is downright modest in assigning credit for the movie's reappearance - it's all about the fans.

"There are all kinds - I've met some 70-year-olds who love the Saints . . . they miss the John Wayne movies. But most are younger, the 18- to-35-year-old males and females, and split right down the middle. A lot of girls are really into it, which freaks me out."

Duffy, as the legend goes, was a bartender and headbanger when he wrote the "Boondock Saints" screenplay out of cathartic frustration at seeing crime in his neighborhood.

"You see some sick thing on the news, you have that instant gut reaction - that son of a b---- should die," said Duffy, who built a movie around that visceral reaction. He figured that guys would go for it, but was surprised and a little alarmed that girls were just as keen.

"Why do women like the movie?" he wondered. "Ultimately, I think females are just sick and tired of the 'let's share,' sensitive male the movies have been feeding them."

You'll get none of that in "BS2," which has the brothers returning to Boston after a hiatus, ridding the city of criminals who've again taken over.

You will, however, find a new female lead (Julie Benz) in the picture. Benz takes over for Willem Dafoe as a sympathetic/eccentric FBI agent on the brothers' trail.

"You can imagine the reaction of the male fan base at the thought of a female lead - they thought it was sacrilegious," said Duffy. "But there's a reason why most sequels suck. They try to do everything just the same. The best sequels give fans what they love about the original, but throw a big curveball. And that's what we did."