Adele will make her acting debut in Tom Ford’s next film, an adaptation of the 1982 Anne Rice novel “Cry to Heaven,” TheWrap has learned. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter will star alongside Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and “Adolescence” breakout Owen Cooper in the film, which is currently in pre-production in London and Rome.
Ford is going the indie route with “Cry to Heaven,” opting to self-finance and take the movie out to distributors once it’s complete. He wrote the screenplay himself and will direct and produce.
Rice’s novel takes place in 18th century Italy and follows two unlikely collaborators: a Venetian noble and a maestro castrato (i.e. a male singer who has undergone castration) who are trying to succeed in the world of opera.
In addition to Adele’s acting debut and the aforementioned male performers, the stacked cast for “Cry to Heaven” also includes Ciarán Hinds, George MacKay, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Paul Bettany, Daniel Quinn-Toye, Hunter Schafer, Josephine Thiesen, Thandiwe Newton, Theodore Pellerin, Daryl McCormack, Cassian Bilton, Hauk Hannemann and Lux Pascal.
Principal photography is expected to begin in January for a planned 2026 release.
“Cry to Heaven” will be Ford’s third feature film after the lauded fashion designer made the leap to features with 2009’s acclaimed drama “A Single Man,” which earned Colin Firth an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. He followed that up with 2016’s twisty (and underrated) thriller “Nocturnal Animals,” which was anchored by Amy Adams and Taylor-Johnson.
In 2022, Ford sold his Tom Ford beauty brand to Estée Lauder for $2.8 billion.
