Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture: A Novel

Mitchell Draper Mystery #1

by Warren Dunford

"One of the funniest and most shamelessly entertaining novels around," wrote Now Magazine about Warren Dunford's hilariously off-kilter novel of friendship, artistic ambition, and organized crime. Originally published in Canada to widespread acclaim, Dunford's Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture has finally crossed the border. Stirring elements of screenwriting, thriller fiction, ironic self-examination, and urban street smarts into an oddly invigorating postmodern stew, Dunford's novel drops the reader into the lives of Mitchell Draper, screenwriter/office temp; Ingrid Iversen, painter/coffeehouse manager; and Ramir Martinez, actor/health-food-store clerk as they come face-to-face with their dreams in the last way they expected. Mitchell's sudden and suspicious opportunity to pen the screenplay of a bad "mafia princess" movie for obnoxious film producer Carmen Denver coincides with the opening of a reluctant Ingrid's first exhibit and Ramir's one-man-show. What goes wrong? Lucky for the reader, pretty much everything as mysterious stalkers, threatening phone calls, and old secrets promise to do a lot more than just break up a friendship in what actress Anne Bancroft called "One of the best fun reads of all time!" "Comic and unexpected ... a far more eloquent meditation on art and dreck than any 5,000-word essay in Harper's. [Dunford] can look forward to a loyal and growing audience."- The Canadian Fiction Review Warren Dunford has been a professional writer for 17 years; his stories have appeared in Quickies 2, This Magazine, and The Toronto Star as well as numerous men's magazines. He is the owner of Warren Dunford Creative Services, providing copywriting services for a range of corporations. He lives in Toronto, where he is hard at work on the sequel to Soon to be a Major Motion Picture.

Genres: LGBT, Canada, Gay, Fiction

255 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Canadian writer Warren Dunford's delightfully droll, up-tempo first novel is filled with bright and sympathetic 20-somethings trying to make their way in the world. Narrator Mitchell Draper is a Toronto screenwriter who works as an office temp as he re-polishes an old script he hopes will make him famous and allow him to mingle with real celebrities rather than the movie star look-alikes who populate his world. His best friends are Ingrid, an artist managing an understaffed coffee shop, and Ramir, a would-be actor working at a health food store. Mitchell is excited when he's hired by quirky Carmen Denver to bring her dream project to the screenDeven if it is a schlocky Mafia Princess rip-off, which Mitchell is forced to dumb down to Carmen's obsessive specifications. Life kicks into high gear when Mitchell meets the man of his dreams (who promptly starts dating Ramir), Ingrid is discovered by an art patron and Ramir needs help writing his one-man show. Things are complicated further when Mitchell is stalked by an Antonio Banderas clone, and slowly realizes that the script he is writing may be true crime, not fiction. Few characters are what they first seem in this quirky comedy, reminiscent of an intricately plotted Joe Keenan farce. Inventively plotted and stocked with appealing characters, Dunford's debut should win him plenty of readers on the American side of the border.

[Kristine Morris]

Like his first book, "Making a Killing" this novel is about struggling young artists finally achieving some sort of success after a build up of crazy and mysterious happenings. I loved both of these books - they are funny, very creative, and based in Toronto. His characters hang out in all the places I did when I was in my twenties living downtown. Hard to find a Canadian author that does not depress the hell of out you - Warren Duford is one.