Adele will take the leap from singing to acting a year after wrapping her lengthy Las Vegas residency, with the Grammy winner set to appear in Tom Ford's adaptation of Anne Rice's novel Cry to Heaven alongside a slew of Hollywood stars. The film is currently in preproduction and set for release in fall 2026. Tom penned the screenplay and will direct and produce through his production company, Fade To Black. The designer will also self-finance the project and take it to market, following the sale of his eponymous fashion brand in 2023 to Estée Lauder Companies for $2.8 billion.
Joining Adele on the screen will be Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ciarán Hinds, George MacKay, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Paul Bettany, Owen Cooper, Daniel Quinn-Toye, Hunter Schafer, Josephine Thiesen, Thandiwe Newton, Theodore Pellerin, Daryl McCormack, Cassian Bilton, Hauk Hannemann, and Lux Pascal. The film is based on Anne's 1982 novel, which follows a Venetian noble, Guido Maffeo, and his opera singer student, Tonio Treshi.
"Guido Maffeo is castrated at age six and enters the conservatory. He becomes a star until he loses his voice. When his voice is gone, he becomes a teacher, searching for a boy who can fulfill his lost dream," the novel's synopsis reads. Several of Anne's novels have been adapted for the screen, including Interview with a Vampire, Mayfair Witches, The Young Messiah, Queen of the Damned and Exit to Eden.
Cry to Heaven marks Tom's third film, following the incredible success of his 2016 flick Nocturnal Animals, which won the Grant Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival that same year, nabbed three Golden Globe nominations, and earned an Oscar nomination for Michael Shannon. His directorial debut was with A Single Man in 2009, which starred Colin Firth and earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
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Tom's upcoming project will mark Adele's film debut, with her previous on-screen performances being limited to appearances on Saturday Night Live and a cameo on Ugly Betty in 2009. The "Someone Like You" singer shared in 2024 that she would be taking a break from the spotlight "for an incredibly long time" after wrapping up her residency in Vegas, which lasted for two years.
© Redferns"I don't have any plans for new music at all. I want a big break after this, and I think I want to do other creative things, just for a little while," she told Germany's ZDF public broadcast service via Deadline in 2024, adding that her tank was "quite empty". The 37-year-old hinted at her aspirations for the screen in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2023, sharing that there was an unnamed film she was interested in.
© AFP via Getty Images"The guy whose movie it would be, he's not mentally ready to write the script for it," she explained. "I bug him every now and then about it, but he's just not there yet. But that's the only role I ever want. Because I think I'd nail it. I think I'd do really, really, really good at it." Adele added that she wouldn't consider doing a biopic, despite receiving several offers in the past.
© Getty"I get offered to do biopics of singers, and I think that's too obvious. And also anyone that's great enough to have a biopic about them, you're just setting yourself up for disaster," she told the publication. "Then would they want me to sing as myself? Because then it would sound like me, it wouldn't sound like them. So I wouldn't do it. But that's all I've been offered, really."
