Adele to Make Acting Debut in Tom Ford’s ‘Cry to Heaven’

Adele will step into her first acting role in Tom Ford's adaptation of Anne Rice's Cry to Heaven, appearing alongside Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Colin Firth, and Paul Bettany. According to Deadline, pre-production has already started, and photography kicks off in January 2026 in London and Rome.

The story unfolds in 18th-century Italy, where a Venetian nobleman and a Calabrian castrato strive for opera stardom. Rice's 1982 book examined male singers who underwent castration to maintain their soprano voices.

The 37-year-old GRAMMY winner wrapped her Las Vegas residency at Caesars Palace last November, bringing two years of performances to a close. She told fans she craved time away from music to try other things.

"I don't have any plans for new music, at all," Adele said, as reported by Variety. "I want a big break after this, and I think I want to do other creative things, just for a little while."

The British artist has claimed 16 GRAMMY Awards and an Oscar for "Skyfall," the theme from the 2012 James Bond movie. She hosted Saturday Night Live in 2020. Her fourth album, 30, dropped in 2021.

Ford directed two films before this. His 2009 debut, A Single Man, also starring Firth and Hoult, snagged an Oscar nomination. Nocturnal Animals followed in 2016, earning nine BAFTA nominations and three Golden Globe nods. Aaron Taylor-Johnson won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Ford penned the screenplay and is bankrolling the film himself, after selling his fashion house to Estee Lauder for $2.8 billion in 2022. He told GQ he would "say goodbye to fashion" and "spend the next 20 years of my life making films."

The film targets a late fall 2026 release.