Lilly Wachowski has said that no Hollywood studio wants to finance her new project, The Hunted, because it contains an all-transgender cast.
The filmmaker is best known for directing The Matrix trilogy with her sister Lana, as well as the films Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas, and the TV show Sense8.
Both sisters are transgender women, with Lana transitioning in the 2000s while Lilly announced her transition in 2016. The Matrix has retrospectively been described as a “trans metaphor” by Lilly, with its themes of identity and transformation speaking to both directors’ journeys.
Despite their success, Lilly revealed on The Business podcast last Friday (August 7) that anti-trans sentiment in the US has led her to struggle to find financing for The Hunted.
“People like it, but they really don’t want to make it because it’s [got a] wall-to-wall trans cast,” she said (via Variety). “I have to get creative and figure out different ways that I can get this in front of people.”
She also said that the rejection has not deterred her from realising the project. “This is a script that was extremely important for me to write,” she continued. “It was a response to what is happening in the world for trans people, and it gave me a hugely cathartic receptacle to dump all of my anger and rage and frustration into.”
Wachowski organised a live table read at the Dynasty Typewriter Theatre in Los Angeles last weekend (August 7-8) as a way of getting it seen by audiences. “I’m just going to go out and I’m going to grab that trans joy with all of my friends,” she said.
“It’s not the thing that I had imagined it was going to be, but the end result is the same.”
In 2022, the Wachowskis auctioned off memorabilia from The Matrix franchise to raise money for transgender youth charities. Last year, Lilly Wachowski addressed the “crazy, mutant” misinterpretations of The Matrix by right-wing groups, saying she was ultimately unbothered by wilful misreadings of the film.
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