Local woman’s TV pilot picked up by Amazon, big Hollywood names attached

“An ex super-model who gets out of rehab and wants to pick up where she left off except being 36 and in rehab for 26 years,” writer and producer Lindsey Stoddart said about Salem Rogers: Model of the Year 1998. It’s a pilot Amazon picked up, with well known actors like Leslie Bibb and Rachel Dratch.

“I got an executive producer on board from the Onion, director Mark Waters who directed Mean girls,” she said.

The only thing more impressive than that lineup in front and behind the scenes, is the first time film maker behind it all: Lindsey Stoddart – from Palm Desert to big time.

“Going to high school at Palm Desert (High School) is where I started to fall in love with acting and theater. I remember my theater teacher she let us be creative. I started thinking I want to be in the entertainment business,” Stoddart said. “During a lull I started writing this script Salem Rogers.”

Thank goodness for that lull – because has the show taken off! Stoddart wrote the pilot – her first ever script – and Amazon Instant Video picked it up.

“They have a policy on their website where you submit the script and they read it. They liked it. Decided they wanted to make it,” she said.

It’s streaming now and up to viewers if we ever see more than a pilot.

“You can watch rate and review the viewers have a say in what gets picked up,” she said.

Watch the pilot here: