The original trio of “Matrix” movies are considered some of the greatest of all time, but one of the creators is having trouble with Hollywood accepting his latest idea.
Andy Wachowski, who now goes by Lilly Wachowski, explained that he has been shopping around what he considers to be a great script, but Tinseltown isn’t biting.
‘It’s not the thing that I had imagined it was going to be.’
Gender bender
Wachowski and his brother Larry — who is also transgender and now goes by Lana — were once revered by movie fans for their intense and philosophical plots. Over the years, however, Wachowski has become intrenched in progressive dogma, and the fourth “Matrix” movie that came 18 years after the last barely moved the needle.
During a recent podcast interview, Wachowski revealed that his latest project, “The Hunted,” is having trouble getting off the ground in terms of financing, despite having a very modest projected budget of $10 million.
“People like it, but they really don’t want to make it,” Wachowski told KCRW’s “The Business,” per Variety.
The director then revealed what the obvious reason was: “because it’s [got a] wall-to-wall trans cast.”
Wachowski has remained so confident in his script that he hosted a live reading last week to showcase its worthiness. Described by Deadline as a biting political thriller similar to his “V for Vendetta,” “The Hunted” is set in a dystopian America where “trans people are brutalized and erased to the margins of society.”
Deadline further wrote that it focuses on two “trans women” who search for the perpetrator of a heinous crime who ends up being in the highest offices of government.
RELATED: ‘Matrix’ co-creator: ‘Trans rage’ drives my work
L-R: Andy ‘Lilly’ Wachowski and Larry ‘Lana’ Wachowski, 2013. JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images
Rage dump
Wachowski has tapped gay activist/actress Natasha Lyonne as producer and explained that the reading is part of the process of getting more eyeballs on the project.
“I have to get creative and figure out different ways that I can get this in front of people,” he continued. “This is a script that was extremely important for me to write.”
Wachowski then described the project as a “response to what is happening in the world for trans people,” revealing it has been a “hugely cathartic receptacle to dump all of my anger and rage and frustration into.”
The project, co-written with his romantic partner, Mickey Ray Mahoney, is likely what Wachowski was referring to when he said his “trans rage” has been fueling his work.
This was coupled with a mantra of: “I’m just going to go out and I’m going to grab that trans joy with all of my friends,” Wachowski said.
RELATED: ‘X-Men’ writer ‘really happy’ that ‘X2’ was referred to as the ‘gayest film’ — claims the movie was about ‘exclusion’
L-R: Larry Wachowski, Andy Wachowski, 1999. Bob Riha Jr./WireImage/Getty Images
Margin call
Adding to his thought process, Wachowski remarked, “It’s not the thing that I had imagined it was going to be, but the end result is the same.”
The recent podcast also included discussion of the filmmaker’s juggling of productions during a gender transition and his nonprofit studio called Anarchists United, which is designed to “showcase marginalized talent.”
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