It has been more than a decade since Lilly Wachowski directed a feature, and she does not sound particularly eager to return to the grueling machinery of moviemaking. But as transgender lives are increasingly politicized, legislated against, and treated as expendable, Wachowski has found a reason to keep creating—even if Hollywood remains reluctant to help her do it.
The filmmaker has written “The Hunted,” a new feature inspired by the escalating hostility directed toward transgender people around the world. Co-written with her partner, Mickey Ray Mahoney, the screenplay became a way for Wachowski to channel her fury through art.
“This is a script that was extremely important for me to write,” Wachowski explained during an appearance on KCRW’s The Business, “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.”
Wachowski has been circulating the screenplay around Hollywood, but its predominantly transgender ensemble has made the project a difficult proposition for conventional financiers.
“When I show this script around town and I say, ‘Hey, I wrote this really cool thing with my partner,’ people like it, but they really don’t want to make it because it’s wall-to-wall trans cast,” she said. “And so I have to get creative and figure out different ways that I can get this in front of people.”
That has included staging a live table read at Los Angeles’ Dynasty Typewriter. Rather than wait indefinitely for someone to finance the envisioned $10 million production, Wachowski decided to find another way to share the work and experience it with an audience.
“Why do we make art?” she asked. “I make art because I want to feel joy. I make art to tell the truth about myself or tell the truth about the world. And so, if that’s the point of it, then how does that manifest itself into something that maybe isn’t a $10 million movie?”
“I got a bunch of my pals, and we’re going to do a table read at Dynasty Typewriter,” she continued. “I’m just going to go out, and I’m going to grab that trans joy with all of my friends. And we’re going to hopefully experience this together. It’s not the thing that I had imagined it was going to be, but the end result is the same.”
“The Hunted” is in development through Wachowski’s Anarchists United, with Natasha Lyonne producing through her Ariadne banner. Anarchists United operates as both a studio and a nonprofit foundation intended to support marginalized artists and underrepresented perspectives outside the increasingly consolidated studio system.
Wachowski said she is investing in short films—including several trans-focused projects—while trying to get the company’s larger slate off the ground. That mission may ultimately pull her back into directing, although she would apparently be content if it did not.
“I’m happy to never direct again,” she admitted. “But for the sake of the company, I’m like, well, let me pick and choose some projects that I would be cool directing or writing and directing and see if that gets us going.”
Wachowski last directed episodes of the Showtime comedy “Work in Progress,” which she also co-created and executive produced. Her last feature directing credit was 2015’s “Jupiter Ascending,” made with her sister Lana Wachowski. Listen to the full podcast conversation below.
