For the first time, Adele has been cast in a feature film. According to reports from Deadline and Variety, the British singer will star alongside in Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Colin Firth, and others in director Tom Ford’s Cry to Heaven. The movie is mooted to come out in late autumn 2026.
Cry to Heaven is Ford’s adaptation of American author Anne Rice’s 1982 novel of the same name. The story is set in 18th-century Italy and follows a Venetian noble and a castrated Calabrian singer who are both trying to succeed in opera. In a contemporaneous review of the novel, for The New York Times, Alice Hoffman noted the importance of music in Cry to Heaven, describing it as “bold and erotic, laced with luxury, sexual tension, music.” She continued, “Music is everywhere: in the voices of the gondoliers, the hymns of the children, the glorious chords of the opera house. Even the bees sing.”
According to the reports, Ford’s film is currently in pre-production in London and Rome, and principal photography is set to begin in mid-January. Along with directorial duties, Ford is also producing and writing Cry to Heaven. It will be his third feature film, following 2009’s A Single Man and 2016’s Nocturnal Animals.
Adele supported her latest studio album, 2021’s 30, with a 100-concert residency in Las Vegas and a 10-show residency in Munich. She has been on a self-described “break” since the end of the Las Vegas residency in November 2024.
