The Wachowskis
Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski are American film and television directors, writers and producers. Together known as the Wachowskis, the sisters are both trans women and have worked as a writing and directing team throughout most of their careers. They made their directing debut with Bound, and achieved fame with The Matrix, a major box-office success for which they won the Saturn Award for Best Director. They wrote and directed two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, and were involved in the writing and production of other works in the Matrix franchise.
Following the commercial success of the Matrix series, the Wachowskis wrote and produced the 2005 film V for Vendetta, an adaptation of the graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, and in 2008 released Speed Racer, a live-action adaptation of the Japanese anime series. Their next film, Cloud Atlas, based on the novel by David Mitchell and co-written and co-directed by Tom Tykwer, was released in 2012. Their film Jupiter Ascending and the Netflix series Sense8, the latter of which they co-created with J. Michael Straczynski, debuted in 2015; the second season of Sense8 ended the series in 2018 and was Lana's first major project without Lilly.
Since the series finale of Sense8, the Wachowskis have been working separately on different projects: Lilly directed, wrote, and executive-produced several episodes of Showtime's Work in Progress with creators Abby McEnany and Tim Mason, while Lana filmed The Matrix Resurrections, written with Mitchell and Aleksandar Hemon, which was released in December 2021.
Early lives and careers
Lana was born in Chicago in 1965; Lilly was born two and a half years later, in 1967. Their mother, Lynne, was a nurse and painter. Their father, Ron Wachowski, was a businessman of Polish descent. Their uncle is Laurence Luckinbill, an actor and Primetime Emmy Award-winning producer. Ron and Lynne died five weeks apart in the late 2010s. Lana and Lilly have two other sisters, Julie and Laura. Julie was assistant coordinator for the film Bound; she is a novelist and screenwriter.The Wachowskis attended the Kellogg Elementary School in Chicago's Beverly area, and graduated from Whitney Young High School, known for its performing arts and science curriculum, in 1983 and 1985. Former classmates recall them playing Dungeons & Dragons and working in the school's theater and TV program.
Lana went to Bard College, in New York state; Lilly attended Emerson College, in Boston. Each dropped out before graduating, and they ran a house-painting and construction business in Chicago.
Beginning in 1993, they wrote several issues of Ectokid for Marvel Comics' Razorline imprint, which were credited to Lana. They also wrote for the series Clive Barker's Hellraiser and Clive Barker's Nightbreed for Marvel's Epic Comics imprint.
Film and television careers
Early film projects
In the mid-1990s, they went into film writing, including the script for Assassins in 1994, which was directed by Richard Donner and released in 1995. Warner Bros. bought the script and included two more pictures in the contract. Donner had their script "totally rewritten" by Brian Helgeland and the Wachowskis tried unsuccessfully to remove their names from the film. They say the experience gave them the perspective that they should become directors or " never survive as writers in this town".Their next project was the 1996 neo-noir thriller Bound, for which they wrote the script and made their debut as directors. The film was well received for its style and craft, and was noted as one of the first mainstream films to feature a same-sex relationship without it being central to the plot. Taking advantage of the positive buzz, the Wachowskis asked to direct their next picture, The Matrix.
''The Matrix'' franchise
They completed The Matrix, a science fiction action film, in 1999. The movie stars Keanu Reeves as Neo, a hacker recruited by a rebellion to aid them in the fight against machines that have taken over the world and placed humanity inside a simulated reality called "the Matrix". Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving and Joe Pantoliano also star. The movie was a critical and commercial hit for Warner Bros. It won four Academy Awards, including for "Best Visual Effects" for popularizing the bullet time visual effect. The Matrix came to be a major influence for action movies and has appeared in several "greatest science fiction films" lists. In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant".After its success, the Wachowskis directed two sequels back-to-back, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, both released in 2003. The Matrix Reloaded received positive critical reception, although not on the level of the original. It became a major box office hit, retaining the spot of the highest-grossing R-rated film for over a decade. The Matrix Revolutions received a mixed critical reception and performed only moderately in the box office. Although profitable, it was slightly less so compared to the original film.
During production of the first film, the Wachowskis and Spencer Lamm, who ran the film's official website, developed comics based on the setting of the film, which were published free of charge on the website. These and a few short stories were released in three series from 1999 to 2003, with several of them collected in two print volumes in 2003 and 2004. The Wachowskis themselves contributed "Bits and Pieces", a prequel to the movie that explains the origins of the Matrix, featuring illustrations by Geof Darrow, the movie's conceptual designer. Other writers and artists that contributed to the series include Neil Gaiman, Dave Gibbons, Paul Chadwick, Ted McKeever, Poppy Z. Brite, and Steve Skroce.
After Lilly Wachowski came out as transgender, she encouraged looking back on her and Lana's works "through the lens of our transness", saying that the themes of identity, self-image and transformation are apparent in The Matrix.
Later collaborations
The Wachowskis' next feature film was V for Vendetta, an adaptation of Alan Moore and David Lloyd's graphic novel of the same name, starring Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving. They wrote and produced the film with Matrix producer Joel Silver, who had previously purchased the film rights to the graphic novel. The Wachowskis offered the film to James McTeigue, the first assistant director of The Matrix trilogy, as his directorial debut. Moore did not participate in the production, as he was disappointed by previous Hollywood adaptations of his work, and disagreed with differences between his graphic novel and the screenplay. Following a statement to the press by Silver that Moore was supposedly excited to learn more about the movie, Moore demanded that Silver retract it, and had his own name removed from the credits when he did not. The film's controversial storyline and themes have been both criticized and praised by sociopolitical groups. It was released in 2005 and was well received critically; it was a box office success but did not rank on the scale of The Matrix films. The film popularized the image of the Guy Fawkes mask, as the version designed by David Lloyd for the graphic novel and used in the movie was adopted as a symbol by the online hacktivist group Anonymous two years later.In 2006, Silver had the Wachowskis and McTeigue hired to revamp The Invasion for Warner Bros. The studio was disappointed in the original cut of the film by director Oliver Hirschbiegel and hired the Wachowskis to rewrite a portion of the script and add new action scenes, which McTeigue directed. The film, the fourth adaptation of the novel The Body Snatchers, was released in 2007 and was not a critical or box office success. The Wachowskis and McTeigue are not credited on the film.
The Wachowskis returned to directing with Speed Racer which starred Emile Hirsch. The film, which was again produced by Silver, was an adaptation of a 1960s Japanese manga series originally called Mach GoGoGo, which had previously been adapted as an anime television series in 1967. The Wachowskis were attracted to the project because the series was the first anime they had watched, and they wanted to make a family-friendly film for their nieces and nephews to enjoy. In an effort to simulate the look of anime in live action, the Wachowskis had cinematographer David Tattersall shoot the movie digitally on a digital backlot with the intention of adding extensive visual effects in post-production. The movie was considered a critical and commercial failure. While its special effects were noted as outstanding, the storyline is considered lacking. It was nominated in the category of "Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel" for the 29th Golden Raspberry Awards. Its box office gross was $93 million compared to a production budget of $120 million. Since then, critics periodically have put the film on lists of underrated or cult films.
The Wachowskis' next film project was Ninja Assassin, a martial arts film starring Rain, which was released in 2009. It was inspired by Rain's fighting scene in Speed Racer. It was produced by the Wachowskis in their last involvement with Silver, and directed by McTeigue. The screenplay was written by Matthew Sand and J. Michael Straczynski, whom the Wachowskis called six weeks before filming to ask him for a total rewrite completed within a week, because they were dissatisfied with the earlier drafts and were running out of time. Ninja Assassin received negative reviews and performed lukewarmly in the theaters but respectably on home video.
Their next directorial outing was Cloud Atlas, which was adapted from David Mitchell's 2004 novel of the same name and starred an ensemble cast which included Tom Hanks and Halle Berry. Cloud Atlas was written and directed in collaboration with German filmmaker Tom Tykwer, to whom the Wachowskis had introduced the novel several years earlier. The filmmakers failed to secure funding from a studio and the film was produced independently after much trouble. With a budget of over $100 million it was noted as the most expensive independent movie to that date and the first attempt at a German blockbuster. The movie opened at the 37th annual Toronto International Film Festival in September 2012 to acclaim and received a loud and lengthy standing ovation. In its general release a month later, it received polarized reviews and eventually appeared in both "Best Film" and "Worst Film" lists. Overall reviews were mixed to positive. The film received many nominations and awards, particularly for its technical aspects, including 10 nominations for the German Film Award, out of which it won five. It also received five Saturn Award nominations, out of which it won two. David Mitchell liked the script of Cloud Atlas, spent some time on the set, and had a positive impression about the result. According to the Wachowskis the movie was the hardest of their films to make, the one they are the most proud of, and the one they have been told has touched people's lives the most. They believe Cloud Atlas will be the film for which they will be remembered.
The Wachowskis subsequently produced and directed Jupiter Ascending, an original space opera screenplay they wrote. The film was released in 2015. It stars Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis, and features the Wachowskis' regular collaborators John Gaeta on visual effects and Kym Barrett on costumes. According to Deadline, the financial and critical failure of Jupiter Ascending caused their business relationship with Warner Bros, that began with The Matrix franchise, to be terminated.
Their next project was the Netflix science fiction drama series Sense8, created and written with J. Michael Straczynski. Sense8 features an international ensemble cast and was shot in multiple cities around the world. The Wachowskis directed most of the episodes of the first season, with the rest being handled by McTeigue, Tykwer, and their go-to visual effects supervisor on their movies, Dan Glass, in his directorial debut. The first season premiered in 2015 to generally positive reviews, particularly for the scale of the production and the presentation of diverse and LGBT characters and themes, winning the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Drama Series. It also received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music. After the first season, Lilly took a break from it, for what turned out to be the remainder of the series. A Christmas special was released on December 23, 2016, with the remainder of the show's second season released in May 2017. Subsequently, the third season was canceled, and Sense8 concluded with a two-hour finale which aired in June 2018.
In June 2016, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invited the Wachowskis to join its ranks. However, in April 2025, Lilly Wachowski said "I'm not in the Academy. I'm not going to join the Academy" during an interview.