Television writer Katja Meier has revealed that when she pitched her screenplay idea to production companies as part of a scheme for over-40 female writers, she was asked to make the protagonist 20 years younger.
Mayer said The Guardian She pitched her idea to several production companies with support from the UK arm of Writers Lab, but her initial enthusiasm turned to trepidation:
“You're thinking, 'Oh my God, the script came out of a show for women over 40, and I'm sitting here being told that the only way to get it done is to make the lead woman 35?' It was literally heartbreaking.
Mayer says she tried to say that her target audience of women over 50 would appreciate the story, but it fell on deaf ears.
“At one show, someone said to me, ‘Oh yeah, we don’t really think women over 50 are a valid audience,’” she says with a laugh. “And I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
Instead, Meyer set up her own company, Zenka Films, and borrowed money to finance the filming of her pilot in March 2024. $hair – The story of a 59-year-old woman who inherited a British-Swiss mining company.
The manager said The Guardian She hopes to raise money to produce the series by launching the pilot on the independent streaming service Olyn.
The newspaper indicates that women constitute 23% of the creators of original television series in 2023/24 (figures from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film).
