Projects
Big Wheel
TITLE: BIG WHEEL by Shauna Ray Ratapu
FORMAT: Feature | Darkly Comedic Family Drama
LOGLINE: When a helicopter mom with PTSD takes in her recovering "asshole" brother, her suburban sanctuary begins to crumble with every reminder of the feral & fearless little girl she was in 1976.
COMPS: THE SKELETON TWINS meets HONEY BOY in THE FLORIDA PROJECT
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SYNOPSIS:
Wanda (38), a happily married mother of three struggling with mental illness from childhood trauma, is forced to face her past self, a feral and fearless 8-year-old, known as “Big Wheel”, when her “asshole” brother Bobby (36), now a recovering alcoholic, seeks her help after a double hip replacement.
Reluctantly, she takes him in, but their reunion disrupts her carefully curated life. Tensions rise as Bobby challenges her parenting and past, leading to a tumultuous confrontation when he relapses.
BIG WHEEL explores the complexities of addiction and the power that perspective has on forgiveness. It takes viewers on a heartfelt journey of self-discovery, reminding them that by finding the funny in the darkest moments, hope and healing are within reach.
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Banking on Burlesque
TITLE: BANKING ON BURLESQUE by Shauna Ray Ratapu
FORMAT: Feature | Over 50 Coming of Age | Dramatic Comedy
LOGLINE: A widowed home loan officer and recent empty-nester, ditches her autopilot existence to explore the technicolor world of burlesque while trying to keep a long-distance relationship - with her late husband’s ghost.
COMPS: GHOST meets MRS HARRIS GOES TO PARIS meets THE FULL MONTY
WORLD: Meet Dee Dee, a drab, 55-year-old widowed home loan officer and recent empty-nester who eats her feelings. Since losing her funny French husband, Jacques, two years ago, she’s been stuck on autopilot, her life revolving around a job she hates, her distant non-binary child Franny, and a monthly non-book-book club with her high school frenemies. Oh, and Jacques, her cheeky cheerleader husband—or rather, his ghost. Or is he just a manifestation of her unprocessed grief?
As Franny heads off to college, leaving Dee Dee facing life alone for the first time, she gets a serendipitous invite to her boss’s engagement party at Big Betty’s Burlesque and BBQ. Suddenly, her drab existence is turned tits up and bottoms down as she rediscovers a world bursting with color and possibility!
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​BANKING ON BURLESQUE is a heartwarming, TIT-illating reminder that life is messy, unpredictable, and beautiful. Until death, it’s all life, baby—and it’s never too late to rediscover the joy of truly living.
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Stars Also Die
TITLE: STARS ALSO DIE by Shauna Ray Ratapu
FORMAT: Feature | Dark Comedy
LOGLINE: When their emotionally abusive, Carl Sagan-obsessed mom is put on hospice care, four estranged siblings reunite for a hilariously dark and cosmically chaotic Thanksgiving.
COMPS: It’s HIS THREE DAUGHTERS meets THE ROYAL TENEBAUMS - with a cosmic twist.
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WORLD: “To make an apple pie from scratch, one must first invent the universe.” – Carl Sagan
For Cheryl and her four estranged children, it’s less about inventing the universe and more about surviving Thanksgiving without killing each other. When their emotionally abusive, wannabe-astronomer matriarch is placed on hospice care, Debra, Fia, Lane, and Levi reunite for a holiday steeped in cosmic chaos, buried trauma, and an alarming amount of pie.
The siblings’ lives orbit around dysfunction: Debra, the overburdened responsible one, Fia, the image-conscious baby of the family, Lane, a brooding artist on the verge of a breakdown, and Levi, a guilt-ridden recluse avoiding his mother’s gravitational pull. Cheryl, with her fading health and lifelong obsession with Carl Sagan, becomes the collapsing star at the center of their familial supernova.
What begins as a reluctant reunion quickly devolves into a hilariously dark battleground of caregiving, resentment, and absurdity. A Thanksgiving pie contest - intended to lift spirits - becomes an emotional minefield, complete with sarcastic quips, worm-filled apples, and hallucinogenic revelations. As tensions reach their cosmic breaking point, the siblings are forced to confront their shared history, their mother’s looming mortality, and the question of whether they can piece their family back together - or let it implode.
In Cheryl’s final days, her children must grapple with the inevitability of loss and the bittersweet realization that, like stars, parents also die. But from the ashes of their implosion, something new might emerge - a chance to build an imperfect, but real, connection.
Darkly comedic and heartbreakingly poignant, STARS ALSO DIE explores the messiness of family through the lens of Carl Sagan’s reminder that we’re all made of stardust - even if some of us are more like black holes.
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