Thunder Bay is a character-driven time-travel drama built with a film-first narrative mindset, emphasizing visual storytelling, emotional continuity, and grounded supernatural elements. The project has been developed as both a completed novella and a visually storyboarded story world designed for potential screen adaptation. 🎬 Download Film Pitch Deck (PDF)
After restoring his long-lost 1980 Camaro, a sixty-two-year-old mechanic is mysteriously transported back to the summer of 1984, where he is given a second chance to change the past — and possibly save the life of someone he cared for deeply.
Genre:
Sci-Fi Drama / Nostalgic Time Travel / Character-Driven Mystery
Tone:
Grounded, emotional, atmospheric, and cinematic — blending nostalgia, suspense, and second-chance drama.
Comparable Tone (Not Derivative):
Peggy Sue Got Married
Frequency
Field of Dreams (emotional resonance)
Back to the Future (nostalgia + time displacement, grounded approach)
Set between modern-day Florida and the vibrant coastal world of 1984, Thunder Bay follows Michael “Mike” McKlinsky, a mechanic who discovers his long lost 1980 Camaro in a local junkyard — a car tied deeply to his past. During a violent storm, the Camaro is unexpectedly struck by lightning while still in the yard, an unexplained event soon followed by a cryptic message emerging from its radio. Intrigued and unsettled, Mike restores the car to the exact way it looked in 1984. But it is only after taking the fully restored Camaro out for a drive that the true anomaly occurs — Mike is suddenly transported back in time to the summer of 1984, the very era he never emotionally left behind.
With knowledge of the future and a second chance unfolding in real time, Mike must decide what to change, what to preserve, and whether rewriting the past will truly lead to a better future.
The story unfolds over a tightly contained timeline with strong emotional stakes and visually distinct cinematic sequences.
The Thunder Bay project has been developed with a cinematic structure from the outset.
The official website includes:
Major visual set pieces include:
This visual-first approach allows filmmakers to quickly understand tone, atmosphere, and pacing.
The narrative is structured in scene-driven segments that naturally translate into screenplay format.
Estimated tone: Mid-budget, emotionally grounded sci-fi drama.
Thunder Bay was intentionally written with cinematic clarity, emphasizing visual continuity, atmosphere, and emotionally restrained performances rather than exposition-heavy narration.
The story explores:
As one thematic line in the story states:
“A second chance isn’t lighter. It’s heavier.”
Film, television, and screenplay inquiries are welcome.
Contact:
thunderbaynovella@gmail.com
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