Paperback Hero is a 1973 Canadian movie, directed by Peter Pearson, which starred Keir Dullea and Elizabeth Ashley. It is set in Saskatchewan and portrays the life of a big-fish minor-league hockey player in a little-pond town.
It was originally titled Last of the Big Guns, but was renamed to reflect the lyrics of Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind", which was featured on the soundtrack.
It won the Canadian Film Awards in 1973 for Film Editing, Overall Sound, and Cinematography.
It was selected in 2006 for the Toronto International Film Festival's Canadian Open Vault program, which preserves examples of notable Canadian cinema.
Paperback Hero is a 1999 film starring Claudia Karvan and Hugh Jackman.
Jack Willis is a handsome roadtrain driver with a secret - he has just become a top-selling romance novelist. However, being a 'man's man' in the Australian outlook, to avoid embarrassment, he needs a name, a woman's name - and he chooses that of his best friend, Ruby Vale. He must do some fancy footwork to continue the charade when the glamorous city publisher, Ziggy, arrives in dusty outback Lucktown to sign 'Ruby Vale' to a major book deal. Ruby agrees to help Jack though it's for her own gain as well - the publisher will pay for her coming wedding (with Hamish, Jack's buddy). Accompanied by Jack, Ruby goes to Sydney to meet the media, appear on TV and cocktail parties, etc. Gradually, Jack realizes that he has fallen in love with Ruby, while Ruby is also touched by Jack's novel. However, Hamish arrives in Sydney a few days later and asks both of them to stop all these foolish things... Written by L.H. Wong
