Hollywood writes strong female characters because it can't write realistic women characters (something like 90% of produced scripts are written by men). All it can do is caricatures: Bella from twilight on one hand and the Kung-Fu princess on the other.

It's just the flip side of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test; http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/10-famous-films-th...; http://thehathorlegacy.com/why-film-schools-teach-screenwrit....

One of the shows I really like is Orange and Black. By setting the show in a women's prison, the writers are forced to develop a range of female characters who don't just sit around talking about men.

Tilda Swinton's character in Michael Clsyton is also great. So is the female Israeli soldier in World War Z.