{"id":42805,"date":"2026-08-13T08:59:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T03:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42805"},"modified":"2026-08-13T08:59:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T03:59:35","slug":"lilly-wachowski-says-hollywood-wont-finance-new-film-with-trans-cast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42805","title":{"rendered":"Lilly Wachowski Says Hollywood Won&#8217;t Finance New Film With Trans Cast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/lilly-wachowski\/\" id=\"auto-tag_lilly-wachowski_1\" data-tag=\"lilly-wachowski\">Lilly Wachowski<\/a>, who co-directed <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/matrix\/\" id=\"auto-tag_matrix_1\" data-tag=\"matrix\">The Matrix<\/a><\/em> franchise, is opening up about the struggle to get financing for her new film that features a \u201cwall-to-wall trans cast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tDuring a recent interview on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcrw.com\/shows\/the-business\/stories\/lilly-wachowski-anarchists-united-paramount\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.kcrw.com\/shows\/the-business\/stories\/lilly-wachowski-anarchists-united-paramount\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">KCRW\u2019s <em>The Business<\/em> podcast<\/a>, the filmmaker acknowledged that it\u2019s unfortunately \u201cnot the greatest time in the industry to be trying to make these kinds of things because all of these opportunities are dwindling for folks with those kinds of stories to tell,\u201d specifically those with \u201cunderrepresented voices and marginalized points of view.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWachowski used her next project, <em>The Hunted<\/em>, as an example, saying it\u2019s been a challenge because when she showed the script around Hollywood, nobody wanted to finance the dystopian political thriller that\u2019s budgeted at roughly $10 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cPeople like it, but they really don\u2019t want to make it because it\u2019s [got a] wall-to-wall trans cast,\u201d she said of the film. \u201cI have to get creative and figure out different ways that I can get this in front of people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWachowski added that the script, which she co-wrote with her partner, Mickey Ray Mahoney, \u201cwas extremely important for me to write.\u201d She continued, \u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tDespite her funding obstacles, Wachowski said she\u2019s pivoted to other ways to get this story in front of people \u201cthat maybe isn\u2019t a $10 million movie,\u201d such as holding a live table read at Los Angeles\u2019 Dynasty Typewriter theater earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cI\u2019m just going to go out and I\u2019m going to grab that trans joy with all of my friends. And we\u2019re going to hopefully experience this together.\u201d Wachowski said of <em>The Hunted<\/em> table read. \u201cIt\u2019s not the thing that I had imagined it was going to be, but the end result is the same.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIn addition to Wachowski and Mahoney, <em>The Hunted<\/em> is being produced by Lawrence Mattis and Sarah Marie Flores at Anarchists United and Natasha Lyonne at Ariadne Collective.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWachowski is best known for helming 1999\u2019s<em> The Matrix<\/em>, 2003\u2019s <em>The Matrix Reloaded<\/em> and 2003\u2019s <em>The Matrix Revolutions <\/em>alongside her sister, Lana Wachowski. She\u2019s also directed 1996\u2019s <em>Bound<\/em>, 2005\u2019s <em>Speed Racer<\/em>, 2012\u2019s <em>Cloud Atlas<\/em> and 2015\u2019s <em>Jupiter Ascending<\/em>, as well as co-created the TV series <em>Sense8<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lilly Wachowski, who co-directed The Matrix franchise, is opening up about the struggle to get financing for her new film that features a \u201cwall-to-wall trans cast.\u201d During a recent interview on KCRW\u2019s The Business podcast, the filmmaker acknowledged that it\u2019s unfortunately \u201cnot the greatest time in the industry to be trying to make these kinds&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Lilly-Wachowski-getty-H-2026.png?w=1296&h=730&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}