Andrew Joseph White’s Hell Followed With Us is headed to the big screen.
Lilly Wachowski will produce an animated film adaptation of White’s queer young adult novel, the production company Trustbridge Entertainment announced in a news release.
White’s novel, published by Peachtree Teen in 2022, follows Benji, a 16-year-old trans boy who escapes the cult who poisoned him with a bioweapon and is rescued by members of an LGBTQ+ center. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus praised the novel as “a gloriously ferocious and scorching blaze.”
Wachowski, known for directing films including The Matrix, Speed Racer, and Cloud Atlas with her sister, Lana Wachowski, will produce the adaptation through Anarchists United, the production company she runs with Sarah Marie Flores.
“From working with queer and neurodivergent artists to tackling the book’s hardest topics with enthusiasm, the production team has such an amazing vision for Hell Followed With Us,” White said in a statement. “I can’t wait to bring the book’s rage at a transphobic world to a new audience, right when we need it.”
White, whose latest novel, Compound Fracture, was published earlier this month, reacted to news of the adaptation on the social platform X, writing, “‘hey andrew how does it feel to finally announce the HFWU movie’ idk actually, the a/c is out in my car and I can’t focus on anything until my fifteen year old ford focus stops being an oven.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
