Aiming for fame and fortune, a struggling screenwriter learns of a long-ago murder-suicide in Toronto's high society, and decides to turn the grisly tale into a blockbuster movie thriller. But his research quickly deepens into a serious murder investigation...

Making a Killing

Dunford, Warren

Penguin

During their bi-weekly morale-boosting dinners at the local Hungarian restaurant, screenwriter/office temp/gay porn writer Mitchell Draper and his best friends, painter/coffeehouse manager Ingrid and actor/heath-food-store clerk Ramir, obsess over their professional aspirations, their sex lives and the illusive allure of celebrity. Their fortunes begin to change when Mitchell gets commissioned to script a film by Carmen   Denver, a cash-laden but somewhat dubious film producer who promises the film -- a bad Mafia Princess rip-off -- will "shake up a lot of people."    The plot thickens when Mitchell begins to suspect there may be more fact than fiction to Carmen's story: he finds himself receiving threatening phone calls and being stalked by a mysterious Antonio Banderas clone. In the meantime, Ingrid's art career takes off when she is courted by a dashing art gallery owner who looks like a young Sidney Poitier as Ramir juggles plans for a one-man-show and his tumultuous love life.  Equal parts quirky comedy, whodunit mystery, and good old-fashioned romance, SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE is a knowing meditation on fame and a wildly entertaining urban fairy tale.

Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Fluid Words

"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."-Paragraph: 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.

Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture: A Novel

Alyson Books

Following the success of 'How to Be a Major Motion Picture,' this new novel from Warren Dunford finds struggling screenwriter Mitchell Draper digging up a 20-year-old-murder-suicide as meat for a new screenplay that might net him $800,000 from a producer who seems as interested in Mitchell as his work. When Mitchell discovers a friend of his has connections with the family involved in the tragedy, fiction becomes mixed with fact - along with greed, money and murder. A hilariously satirical study of celebrity culture.

Making A Killing

Humor & Satire

Soon to be a major motion picture: A novel

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

Riverbank Press

Cormorant Books

Thrillers & Suspense

The Scene Stealer

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