Former Miramax Exec Munika Lay Teams With Indie Producer Toni Wang to Launch Luna Media

Munika Lay and Toni Wang have teamed to launch Luna Media.

The production company carries a mission to “shine a light on unseen stories” and will work across film, television and digital content. Luna Media’s slate already includes a recently wrapped feature, Tap Twice, from multi-hyphenate King Bach, aka Andrew Bachelor, who directed and stars in the project.

Luna Lab will seek to accomplish its work of advancing representation through the launch of a development initiative called Luna Lab. An inaugural installment of it is already on the rails with a screenwriting portion that kicked off this summer. From a large pool of applicants, a team of industry professionals first selected 10 semifinalists before the group was whittled down to six finalists (including a writing team of two).

The finalists received a stipend for the four-month program, which featured workshops, meetings and mentorship. It culminated with a Luna Lab Pitch Day that took place at Rideback Ranch in Los Angeles, where finalists pitched projects to an audience of industry insiders. Additional information on the finalists and their projects is below.

Lay comes to Luna after having served as a senior vp of film at Miramax, where she oversaw such films as The Holdovers, The Beekeeper and Wrath of Man. Prior to Miramax, she had executive stints at MGM, Paramount, Warner Bros. and WME. The Long Beach native, who graduated from USC’s Marshall School of Business and Stanford University, serves as a co-founder of digital-first action studio Melee and works as an adjunct professor in film studies at Mount Saint Mary’s University.

Wang is a producer whose recent credits include Sung Kang’s TIFF selection Drifter and Jill Sachs’ Sundance Film Festival short selection Taga. She also executive produced the indie A Great Divide starring Ken Jeong. Wang previously worked at Columbia Records, where she worked in digital, helping steer content for artists like Destiny’s Child, Train, Lauryn Hill and Leonard Cohen. The Shanghai-born producer, who graduated from Wellesley College, also co-founded an electronic pop trio and created an album titled A Little Mandarin to reimagine Chinese children’s classics for contemporary audiences.

“Growing up, I was obsessed with movies but I never quite found people like me onscreen, even in the few Asian characters I encountered,” Lay said in a statement. “Asian Americans are often treated as a monolithic group, when in reality, most Southeast Asians arrived in the US as refugees from war and genocide. Few of us are fortunate enough to even dream about working in entertainment, and our stories are rarely depicted in films or TV shows.”

Added Wang: “Our goal, beyond elevating these six projects, is to equip every participant with the skills and connections to thrive as a professional filmmaker — and to carry that momentum into the Southeast Asian creative community, and ultimately, into the broader cultural zeitgeist.”

Luna Lab’s finalists and details on their scripts:

Bunthoeun Real with Demon Arms: After being released from prison, Fia, a former gangster turned kung-fu master, must infiltrate a high-society demon syndicate to rescue her sister. Fia’s mission takes her into a shadow world of literal monsters, forcing her to battle, survive and ultimately embrace her legacy to become the city’s phantom protector.

Phet Mahathongdy with Go To Sleep: A woman returns to her estranged mother’s house where they awaken a vengeful Lao spirit hellbent on destroying her family. Now she must uncover the secrets of her family’s journey to America and force her mother to confront the past before it’s too late. Based on the true events that inspired A Nightmare on Elm Street where over one hundred Southeast Asian refugees died in their sleep mysteriously, Go To Sleep explores the story from a Southeast Asian perspective.

Saila Reyes with In the Smoke of You: A world-renowned pianist returns home on the eve of his first love’s wedding to his crime-boss brother, forcing them to confront the violent past they covered up together and the wounds that they still share.

Samantha Tan with Ally Chia: A hungry, horny American dream story. With only six months to secure her green card, an ambitious home chef in Los Angeles doubles down on the hustle while fighting not to lose herself or the loved ones who make it worth staying in the first place.

Sebastien Tobler with Lino’s Vortex: An aging Filipino hippie and his uptight estranged grandson chase a mystical vortex in the Arizona desert, unearthing family secrets and forging an unlikely bond through psychedelics.

Tom Dang and Nico Wan with Happy Pizza: When a recently laid-off rave bae and his equally degenerate best friend are hired to throw the grand reopening party for a beach resort, they have to convince everyone they know what they’re doing — before the police bust them, the gangsters get them or the party drugs kill them.