Singer-songwriter and British icon Adele will be making the daring career shift from singing to acting in Tom Ford’s latest film Cry to Heaven.
Adele makes the change four years after the release of her last album in 2021 and a year since she ended a lengthy Las Vegas residency. She announced then her plans to take “a big break”, wanting to “do other creative things just for a little while”.
The sixteen-time Grammy winner is set to make her acting debut in former fashion designer Tom Ford’s third film, Cry to Heaven. Adapted from Anne Rice’s novel of the same name, the story takes place in the 18th-century world of the castrati – male singers who were castrated before puberty to preserve their high-pitched voices. It follows a nobleman, Guido Maggeo, and his opera-singer student, Tonio Treshi. Ford will be penning the screenplay, as well as directing and producing the film through his production company Fade To Black.
Dream
Joining Adele is a lineup of other big names, including Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ciarán Hinds, George MacKay, Colin Firth, Paul Bettany, and rising Adolescence star Owen Cooper. Further details of roles and who Adele will be playing have yet to be announced.
The new adaptation of Cry to Heaven comes as yet another Rice novel brought to the big screen, following Interview With The Vampire, Mayfair Witches, The Young Messiah, and many others. The 1982 novel’s synopsis reads: “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.”
With the film, Ford is making good on his promise after he sold his eponymous fashion house in 2022 to Estée Lauder Companies for $2.8 billion (£2.4 billion), saying he would “say goodbye to fashion” and “spend the next 20 years of my life making films”. His last two were highly acclaimed, with 2009’s A Single Man starring Colin Firth and Nicholas Hoult, and 2016’s Nocturnal Animals earning him two BAFTA nominations.
“I loved making the two films that I made. That was the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life,” Ford told GQ.
Cry to Heaven is currently in pre-production in London and Rome, and set for release in late 2026.
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