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The Grammy-winning artist will make her film acting debut in Cry to Heaven, a lavish adaptation of Anne Rice's 1982 novel, directed, written, and produced by Tom Ford.
The project marks Ford's first return to filmmaking in nearly a decade. Best known for his acclaimed features A Single Man and Nocturnal Animals, the fashion icon is now reviving Rice's sweeping tale of art, beauty, and betrayal in 18th-century Italy.
Adele will join a sprawling ensemble that includes Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Thandiwe Newton, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Paul Bettany, Ciarán Hinds, George MacKay, Hunter Schafer, and Lux Pascal. The film, currently in pre-production between London and Rome, is scheduled to begin principal photography in January, with a fall 2026 release on the horizon.
Cry to Heaven follows the intertwined fates of a Venetian nobleman and a castrated opera singer navigating love, ambition, and identity within Europe's glittering yet ruthless world of music. Ford, who is self-financing the film through his Fade to Black banner, plans to secure a distribution partner once production wraps.
The collaboration reunites Ford with both Firth and Taylor-Johnson, the former starred in A Single Man, while the latter appeared in Nocturnal Animals. The film also continues Ford's pattern of pairing refined aesthetics with complex emotional storytelling.
For Adele, the move into acting comes after announcing a creative pause in her music career following her Las Vegas residency. "I don't have any plans for new music, at all," she said last year. "I want a big break after this, to do other creative things for a while."
With Ford's meticulous vision and Adele's powerhouse presence, Cry to Heaven is already one of Hollywood's most closely watched projects, promising to blend high fashion, high drama, and the haunting lyricism of Rice's original prose.
