‘The Matrix’ Director Lilly Wachowski Says Hollywood Won’t Finance Her $10 Million Thriller Because It’s Got a ‘Wall-to-Wall Trans Cast’
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- Lilly Wachowski said on KCRW's "The Business" podcast that no one in Hollywood will finance her $10 million thriller "The Hunted" because it has a "wall-to-wall trans cast," adding she has to "get creative" to get it made
- "The Hunted" is co-written by Wachowski and her partner Mickey Ray Mahoney and is currently in development through Anarchists United and Natasha Lyonne's Ariadne banner
- Wachowski called the script a "hugely cathartic receptacle" to dump her "anger and rage and frustration" about what is happening to trans people in the world
- Faced with financing resistance, Wachowski organized a live table read at Los Angeles' Dynasty Typewriter theater on Aug. 7-8, saying she decided to "grab that trans joy with all of my friends"
- Wachowski previously co-directed 1999's "The Matrix," its sequels, "Speed Racer," "Cloud Atlas," and "Jupiter Ascending" with her sister Lana Wachowski
Why it matters: A director with Wachowski's track record—co-creator of a multi-billion-dollar Matrix franchise—says a $10 million budget is a non-starter when the cast is entirely trans, highlighting how explicit trans representation can block even modest financing. Her pivot to a self-produced table read at Dynasty Typewriter is both a creative workaround and a public indictment of the gap between Hollywood's stated diversity commitments and its actual funding decisions.
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