Lilly Wachowski Says Hollywood Won't Finance Her Trans-Led Thriller 'The Hunted'

Lilly Wachowski, co-director of The Matrix and its sequels, says Hollywood will not finance her thriller The Hunted because the film has a wall-to-wall transgender cast.

Wachowski made the remarks on KCRW's The Business podcast, telling the programme that financiers have passed on the project despite its modest budget of around $10 million — a fraction of the cost of the tentpole films she built her career on. She co-wrote the screenplay with her partner, Mickey Ray Mahoney. The project is in development through Anarchists United and Natasha Lyonne's production banner, Ariadne. (Variety)

To prove the film can work, Wachowski assembled a live table read at Los Angeles' Dynasty Typewriter theatre on August 7 and 8, giving the script a public hearing with cast in front of an audience.

Wachowski told the podcast that The Hunted allowed her to channel her anger over the treatment of transgender people, according to The Playlist. The film is a thriller, and its all-trans cast sits at the centre of her case: the story demands those performers, and she will not recast around them. (The Playlist)

The situation carries a particular weight given Wachowski's standing in the industry. With her sister Lana, she directed 1999's The Matrix — a film that grossed over $460 million worldwide and reshaped the action genre — along with The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. The siblings also directed Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas, and Jupiter Ascending. A film-maker with that résumé, seeking roughly $10 million and unable to secure it, puts the financing gap in sharp focus.

For now, The Hunted remains in development — with a script, a table read, and producers attached, but no green light. Whether the Dynasty Typewriter staging draws the financing the project still needs is an open question the industry will answer in the months ahead.