The Matrix director Lilly Wachowski has said she is struggling to secure financing for a new film featuring an entirely transgender cast, claiming Hollywood studios are reluctant to back the project.
Wachowski, who co-created The Matrix franchise alongside her sister Lana Wachowski, revealed that her screenplay, The Hunted, has received positive responses but has failed to attract studio support because of its trans-led cast.
Speaking on The Business podcast, the filmmaker said: "People like it, but they really don't want to make it because it's [got a] wall-to-wall trans cast."
She added: "I have to get creative and figure out different ways that I can get this in front of people."
Wachowski said she wrote The Hunted as a response to growing hostility towards trans people in the United States, describing the script as a deeply personal project.
"This is a script that was extremely important for me to write," she said. "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."
Rather than shelving the project, Wachowski has been exploring alternative ways to bring it to audiences. Last weekend she organised a live table read of the script at Los Angeles' Dynasty Typewriter Theatre.
"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."
Wachowski is best known for co-directing The Matrix trilogy, as well as Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas and the Netflix series Sense8.
Both Lilly and Lana Wachowski are trans women. Since the release of The Matrix, Lilly Wachowski has spoken openly about the film's themes of identity and transformation, describing it as having emerged from experiences connected to gender transition.
The director has also been an outspoken supporter of trans rights. In 2022, the Wachowskis auctioned memorabilia from The Matrix franchise to raise money for organisations supporting transgender young people.
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