ABOUT THE PROJECT
LOGLINE
After their sleazy boss turns up dead, a disorderly group of trans friends get caught up in a midwestern small-town drug ring and decide if now is their chance to stake claim or get out for good.
SYNOPSIS
“Nobody wants to be born here. And as far back as I can remember, I always wanted to get out.”
Following an explosion that leaves a low-level mobster for dead, his young employee Ray is left with a huge score of cocaine. Putting together a crew of their local queer friends, Ray and the gang decide to move the drugs, using the payoff to escape the trappings of their small town. Will the crew make it out for good or will they stay behind to become the new top family of the Midwest Mob?
WILD ONES intends to canonize queer and trans people into the cinema landscape in a light they have seldom been afforded. The film doesn’t exist to explain a character’s queerness or offer up a didactic journey for straight, cis audiences. Instead, it offers a story for all crime—thriller fans that dives into the enigmatic lives and messy ambitions of our anti—heroes.
With protagonists defined by a combination of irrational forces and seemingly rational social roles, the film builds toward unknown consequences. While stripping the characters down to reveal their intimate personalities underneath, the crew navigates new opportunities while witnessing their ruptured friendships struggling to transition from adolescence to adulthood.
WILD ONES is the story of five friends who take on the most dangerous challenge they have ever known to make a better life. How can they be vulnerable? How can they confront and accept change? How can they find purpose while participating in the myriad struggles of everyday life? At its heart, WILD ONES is a profoundly personal examination of family, the conflict of pain, healing, and how they learn to accept and grow with one another.
PROJECT TYPE Narrative Short
DIRECTOR Leone DiSantis
SCREENWRITER Leone DiSantis
PRODUCER Katherine Croft, Laura Burhenn, Lavinia Jones Wright, Leone DiSantis
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Lilly Wachowski
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Cookie Walukas
WEBSITE wildonesthefilm.com