2019 contest finalist STRAY by Scott Gatlin has been optioned by Sean Dwyer and Elizabeth Cullen of Poke Prod along with producers Nick Leicht and Don Carroll. Poke Prod has produced 18 films. In 2019, they released two Netflix Originals, HOLIDAY RUSH and WALK RIDE RODEO.  Together, the films were seen by more than 60 million people with extremely high viewership in their targeted demos and extremely high completion rates.  Congrats, Scott!

The story centers on Julien Wright, a black autistic street-kid, with a singular obsession.  An impossible dream – to compete in the Miss Lone Star Princess of Texas beauty pageant.  Suzie Caldwell is a has-been, hard drinking pageant coach whose talent for creating winners is rivaled only by the havoc she wrecks in the process.  When fate forces them together, the odds are slim that either one will come out intact.  But they will defy the odds, defy the system and find a way to teach each other what it truly means to be beautiful.  Stray is about family -- not the one you are born with but the one that you make.  Julien has been taken in by a group of trans women who protect him and show him love and a mentor in Suzie who helps him realize his dreams.