When Tom Ford retired from fashion design in 2023, the silver lining was the promise he’d have more time to direct films. Today brings news that he has his first feature in nearly a decade lined up. Deadline reports that Ford will direct an adaptation of Cry to Heaven, a 1982 novel from Interview With The Vampire writer Anne Rice. A star-studded cast that would rival any fashion week front row is already in place. The cherry on top? Adele will be making her motion picture debut.
The former Gucci and YSL creative director has reportedly been thinking about this story since last year. It will also be a self-financed affair, which shouldn’t be difficult given he sold his Tom Ford fashion label to The Estée Lauder Companies for nearly three billion dollars in 2023. The cast will also feature several actors he worked with on his last two films—2009’s A Single Man, which earned an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA win, and 2016’s Nocturnal Animals, which won the Grand Jury prize at the Venice Film Festival before receiving BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Academy Award nominations.
Below, everything we know about Tom Ford’s Cry to Heaven adaptation so far:
Who is in the cast?
Aaron Taylor-Johnson (who starred in Nocturnal Animals), Colin Firth (who won the Volpi Cup at Venice for A Single Man), Nicholas Hoult, Adolescence star Owen Cooper, Ciarán Hinds, George MacKay, Mark Strong, Paul Bettany, Daniel Quinn-Toye, Hunter Schafer, Josephine Thiesen, Thandiwe Newton, Theodore Pellerin, Daryl McCormack, Cassian Bilton, Hauk Hannemann, and Lux Pascal (sister of Pedro Pascal) are all on board.
The film also marks Adele’s film acting debut, possibly putting the multi-time Grammy winner on the road to an EGOT.
What is the plot of Cry to Heaven?
Ford has reportedly already written the screenplay for the film, based on Rice’s novel of the same name.
That book is set in 18th-century Italy, and follows the paths of two characters: the peasant and maestro castrato Guido Maffero, who becomes an opera star (we can start to see where Adele’s casting fits in), and Venetian noble Tonio Treschi. Over the course of their lives, the pair’s paths cross in increasingly complicated and scandalous ways in a story about identity, family, revenge, and the limits of artistic talent.
Though Rice’s most popular work often involves the supernatural (vampires, witches, and the like), this work was straightforward historical fiction.
When will Cry to Heaven be released?
The film is in development; stay tuned for updates.
