Lilly Wachowski to adapt trans horror novel Manhunt for TV

Trans director Lilly Wachowski is making queer fiction-fans’ dreams come true by adapting the novel Manhunt.

Best-known for her work on The Matrix and Sense8, Wachowski is set to adapt the queer horror sci-fi novel for television alongside the book’s author, Gretchen Felker-Martin.

The book, published in 2022, follows transgender women Beth and Fran, who live in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of New England where they hunt feral, testosterone-fuelled men and murderous TERFs.

Felker-Martin announced the news on X/Twitter on Friday (11 October), saying: “The cat’s out of the bag, baby. I’m adapting Manhunt for TV with Lilly Wachowski, and I couldn’t be prouder or more excited to be writing it.

“We’re going to do our damndest to bring this thing kicking, screaming, and queer as hell on to the screen.”

Wachowski confirmed her part in the project, telling Autostraddle: “I’m involved in the adaptations of a couple of different trans books, Gretchen Felker-Martin’s Manhunt and Jordy Rosenberg’s Confessions of the Fox. I’m trying to do an adaption of this wonderful comic book called Cosmoknights, it’s lesbians in space.”

Last month, she announced that she will be co-producing an animated version of the young-adult novel Hell Followed With Us. Andrew Joseph White’s book follows 16-year-old trans boy Benji, who has escaped from the cult that raised him. After meeting a group of queer teens, he and his friend Nick work to discover a beast hidden deep within him.

Bob Higgins, the president of production company Trustbridge Entertainment, said adapting the book was a “no-brainer.” The story is a “gut-wrenchingly honest personal journey “that requires [translation by] filmmakers with an “authentic point of view”, he added.

Talking about her future plans, Wachowski said: “Some of the projects are big, some of the projects are small, but they’re all queer and trans.

“Nowadays, when I go into meetings, and I’m taking a lot of meetings these days because I’m trying to make queer s**t, I’m trying to make trans s**t, I talk about representation, I talk about the GLAAD Index and how there were only two trans characters in all mainstream movies produced last year.

“I’m saying there is a problem that is happening politically and legislatively that is targeting trans people, and what is happening in our industry is part-and-parcel of that. We have to do something about it.”

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