Soon to be a Major Motion Picture

Before “Soon To Be a Major Motion Picture” was published to rave reviews, novelist Warren Dunford eked out a living doing freelance copywriting and writing erotic fiction for gents. The author sounds similar to his fictional hero, Mitchell Draper, who labors doing temp jobs and writing gay porn but dreams of being a successful Hollywood screenwriter. Gathering dust and rejection slips is his latest effort called “Hell Hole”, a modern day horror story about a loony landlord who creatively slays tenants who complain about his decrepit property. Mitch assumes with “utmost certainty” that it is better than many scripts that have actually been produced in the movie Mecca. On the basis of a “blurb”, Mitch is fortuitously united with Carmen Denver, a self-proclaimed Hollywood producer who commissions him to do a treatment of a crime-love story. Mitch is rightly dubious of Carmen’s credentials since she seems to have no office or a secretary. But a $5,000 cash advance assuages his misgivings. All seems right with the world until Mitchell finds himself followed by a shadowy figure who resembles a “young” Antonio Bandereas; flattered b y what he assumes to be cruising, the hapless Mitch is less enchanted when he discovers that “Banderas” is the minion of Carmen’s father who happens to be a gangland boss who does not savor the prospect of being the centerpiece of a Hollywood expose.

Ironically Mitchell and the mobster strike a deal: Mitchell will abandon his gangster-love epic and the crime lord will help him produce his moldy “Hell-Hole” script. The venal pact almost resembles a re-enactment of “Faust”. After all, the theme of this book is ambition and all the foibles and vanities that attend to it. We are not terribly disillusioned by Mitchell’s breathless decision. There is no great leap here because it is indeed the union of a cheesy con artist and an eager, covetous intern who yearns for fame. On the last page, Mitchell informs us that he has fashioned his diaries into a novel and it has been accepted by a publisher who describes it as “quirky’ an “unlikely” but decides to publish it nonethe less. We can only hope with Warren Dunford’s validation as a “legitimate” writer that his level of ambition will rise above biographical entertainment.

RECOMMENDED READING: “Soon To Be a Major Motion Picture”, by Warren Dunford. Alyson Books, Nov. 2000, ISBN 1-55583-582-1.

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