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Women can be killers, not adulterers: Hollywood's heroine problem

After two decades of film producers fretting over her taboo-breaking book Layover, novelist Lisa Zeidner asks if Hollywood is finally ready for a bed-hopping woman

When my novel Layover was first optioned for film in 1999, my agent joked: “It’ll be cheap to shoot. All you need is a bed.” That’s not entirely fair. You also need an airport, a couple of hotel lobbies and a lingerie shop dressing room.

Layover follows a travelling saleswoman who uses her sexuality to challenge expectations for middle-aged women and to propel herself out of grief. The novel has been optioned for 19 straight years, by five different teams. This latest attempt is slated to start in early 2019. What has remained constant over these years is the small number of movies that feature a female protagonist, and the shockingly stringent limits on how she can be portrayed.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2AirE6E
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