“The Gender Games” could be coming to the small screen, and Doctor Strange is involved. Benedict Cumberbatch’s SunnyMarch banner has scored TV rights to the memoir by Juno Dawson, a trans activist and best-selling author whose other books include “This Book is Gay,” “Margot & Me,” and “Clean.” “The Gender Games” will “serve as a jumping off point to create an original half-hour series picking up Dawson’s journey post-transition,” according to Variety.
Released in 2017, the book chronicles Dawson’s journey as she “learns how to live, love, and date as a woman. Having built a career, relationships, and identity on the other side of the gender divide, Dawson is constantly coming up against everyone’s expectations of what being a woman means, including her own. Surrounded by her close-knit group of straight, gay, cis, and trans friends, Juno’s journey into womanhood makes for funny, poignant, and often profound moments of self-discovery,” the source summarizes.
British screenwriter and playwright Rose Lewenstein (“Darknet,” “Now This is Not the End”) will write the project, which is said to be a “fictionalized version” of Dawson’s life. Dawson will work closely with Lewenstein during the writing process.
“I was surprised and delighted when SunnyMarch wanted to adapt my life story, but we immediately shared a vision for a fast, funny, fashionable show about young women who just happen to be transgender,” Dawson said. “Working with Rose allows me to tell my story in a way that no other drama has authentically explored the trans experience of life and love.”
Added Claire Marshall, executive producer at SunnyMarch, “We’re so thrilled Juno has trusted us and Rose with the hugely thrilling task of turning her own experiences into an original series about womanhood, friendship, and dating in the 21st century.”
Dawson has written about being asked whether she’s “happier” post-transition. “Because there is a fixation with the tiny percentage of trans people who decide medical transition isn’t for them and give it up as a bad job, some people dance around whether I regret my decision,” she explained. “But I’ve never once looked back. Living as a woman feels as instinctive to me as breathing; being James felt like I was being weighed down and crushed by chains. Telling my mum about my transition was the hardest day. I trudged up to Leeds fully expecting it would be the last time she’d ever speak to me, but she handled it like a trooper and that day I broke free from those chains,” she recalled. “And now I am living the life I’ve always wanted. Spoiler alert: gender transition is not about ‘dressing up’ as a woman. That four-year-old girl convinced she was She-Ra was right the whole time. My only regret is that I didn’t figure it out sooner. When it comes to doing whatever it takes to make our life really worth living, we have two options: change, or forever wonder. I didn’t want to be haunted by the ghosts of ‘what ifs?’, so I chose change. ”
Cumberbatch recently spoke out about equal pay and the fact that female audiences are underserved. “Look at your quotas. Ask what women are being paid, and say: ‘If she’s not paid the same as the men, I’m not doing it,'” he advised male actors. The “Sherlock” and “Patrick Melrose” star continued, “I’m proud that [partner] Adam [Ackland] and I are the only men in our production company; our next project is a female story with a female lens about motherhood, in a time of environmental disaster. If it’s centered around my name, to get investors, then we can use that attention for a raft of female projects. Half the audience is female!”
