The Matrix’s Lilly Wachowski says Hollywood won’t back her new film over “wall-to-wall trans cast”
Lilly Wachowski (Image: Getty Images)
Lilly Wachowski has said Hollywood financiers are reluctant to back her roughly $10million dystopian political thriller The Hunted because it has a “wall-to-wall trans cast”.
Wachowski, best known for The Matrix franchise, made the comments to KCRW’s The Business, saying she is now looking for other ways to get the project in front of people.
“People like it, but they really don’t want to make it because it’s [got a] wall-to-wall trans cast,” she said. Wachowski added: “I have to get creative and figure out different ways that I can get this in front of people.”
She also described the script as a response to the current climate for trans people. “It gave me a hugely cathartic receptacle to dump all of my anger and rage and frustration into,” she said.
Wachowski co-wrote The Hunted with her partner, Mickey Ray Mahoney. The project is in development through Anarchists United and Natasha Lyonne’s Ariadne banner/collective.
Taking the story to the stage
Wachowski staged a live table read at Los Angeles’ Dynasty Typewriter theatre on 7 to 8 August. She framed the event as a way of building something communal around the work, saying: “I’m just going to go out and I’m going to grab that trans joy with all of my friends.”
“It’s not the thing that I had imagined it was going to be, but the end result is the same,” she added.
The project is described as involving a dystopian America where trans people are brutalised and pushed to the margins, with two trans women searching for a perpetrator whose trail leads to the highest reaches of government.
Wachowski made waves
Wachowski, who with her sister Lana became a defining voice in late-90s and 2000s sci-fi cinema, came out publicly as transgender in the 2010s and has spoken about trans identity and visibility in media.
She has previously said she had to “let go” of The Matrix due to right-wing interpretations, and co-created Netflix’s Sense8, celebrated for its queer and trans representation.
The Hunted isn’t the first all-trans cast project Wachowski has made, as last year she created the 18-minute short Dolls, which was a different take on classic The Stepford Wives.
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