Tom Ford is stepping behind the camera again, and this time he’s bringing Adele with him.
According to Deadline, nearly ten years after Nocturnal Animals, the designer-turned-director has confirmed his next film: a cinematic take on Anne Rice’s novel Cry to Heaven, with an ensemble cast stacked from top to bottom.
Ford wrote the screenplay himself and will produce and direct under his Fade To Black banner. The story is set in 18th-century Italy, following two men from vastly different worlds—a Venetian aristocrat and a castrated singer from Calabria—whose lives intersect as they vie for a place in the opera world.
The lineup for this adaptation reads like its own red-carpet moment. Nicholas Hoult and Aaron Taylor-Johnson take on leading roles, while Adele joins the cast in what will be her first onscreen performance.
She appears alongside 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.
Production is currently underway in London and Rome, with principal photography scheduled for mid-January. The film is targeting a late-autumn 2026 release.
For Ford, Cry to Heaven marks a return to the direction style that helped shape his early career in Hollywood. His debut film, A Single Man, premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2009 and earned Colin Firth the Volpi Cup, later leading to an Oscar nomination.
Nocturnal Animals followed in 2016, picking up the festival’s Grand Jury Prize and earning multiple BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. It also led to a Golden Globe win for Taylor-Johnson and an Oscar nomination for Michael Shannon.
The director reportedly explored various studio partnerships but ultimately chose to finance the project himself. By self-funding, he plans to take the finished film to market upon completion of production.
Ford has been focused on selecting the right cast since first considering the project last year, and the film will also reunite him with Taylor-Johnson and Firth from earlier collaborations.