It’s time to frock up and get back on the road: a new Priscilla movie is in the works, 30 years after the original was released.
Stephan Elliott – writer and director of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – confirmed in an interview with entertainment website Deadline that a sequel to the beloved Australian hit has been written.
A sequel has been written for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
“The original cast is on board, I’ve got a script that everybody likes, we’re still working out deals … it’s happening,” Elliott said.
“I’m not repeating myself, we’ll start the new film in Australia, but by god, we’re going on one helluva journey.”
The director said the new film would bring back drag queens Bernadette (Terence Stamp), Felicia (Guy Pearce) and Mitzi (Hugo Weaving). In the original, the trio travel from Sydney to Alice Springs on their bus named Priscilla, encountering quirky characters in the Australian outback.
Elliott said Stamp, now aged 85, was particularly keen to “get it happening, get it shooting this year”.
Priscilla – which screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the 1994 Cannes Film Festival – won critical and popular acclaim for its portrayal of LGBTQ characters. Australian designers Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for their sparkly, sequin-filled creations. (And Gardiner’s 1995 gold American Express gown is still regarded as an Oscars-night classic.)
Since its release, the film has been adapted into a musical, with an immersive version of the stage show called Priscilla the Party! opening in London earlier this year.
While Priscilla and the acclaimed 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning were some of the first mainstream depictions of drag culture, the art form has stepped into the pop culture spotlight in the past decade thanks to television shows such as RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Elliott told Deadline that the new film would “move with the times”, showcasing disco hits alongside contemporary pop numbers.
Hugo Weaving as Mitzi in the 1994 film.
In a 2023 interview, Weaving told Good Weekend he probably wouldn’t be cast as Mitzi if they made Priscilla in the current political climate.
“A number of gay actors were offered one of the roles and they were very reluctant to take it because they didn’t want to out themselves,” he said. “I’m not a gay man and I don’t have any issues playing gay. But I think a lot of people do now.”
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