Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert sequel in the works 30 years later
Priscilla director Stephen Elliott promises "the original cast is on board… It's happening."
Aux News Queen of the Desert
It feels weirdly reductive, 30 years later, to refer to The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert as simply a “cult” film. Stephen Elliott’s Oscar-winning comedy, about three drag performers traveling across Australia, has entered the canon of films exploring the lives of LGBTQ+ characters on film, using the road-trip structure to tell a funny, heartwarming story about its three leads. (Even if the film has come under fire, both at the time of its release, and since, for its depictions of some of its minor character, most notably Cynthia, a Filipinia woman played by Cynthia Campos.)
Now, Elliott says he’s ready to get the bus back on the road, 30 years later, telling Deadline this week that a sequel to Priscilla is definitely happening. More than that, he’s also reportedly got all three of the original film’s stars—Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, and Terence Stamp, the latter of whom played trans character Bernadette in the original film—on board to reprise their roles.
“The original cast is on board, I’ve got a script that everybody likes, we’re still working out deals. … It’s happening,” Elliott asserted. He’s also apparently working on a remaster of the original film, and has just kicked off a new musical interpretation of the film, Priscilla The Party!, in London’s West End. He is, in other words, very gung-ho on revisiting the film, and, per his comments, so are the stars—even Stamp, who’s now 85 years old, and who apparently wants to “get it happening, get it shooting this year. Actually, as soon as possible.”
9 Comments
Hopefully this one will have less of a message that deadnaming is perfectly fine and anyone who gets offended by it is just an uptight prick who deserves to be taken down a peg.
Agreed.
It’s been years since I’ve seen Priscilla, but I think it’s fair to say it treats its subject matter mostly well. Hopefully the sequel knocks it out of the park (or kicks it in the dick if you’re Australian).
More than that, he’s also reportedly got all three of the original film’s stars—Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, and Terence Stamp, the latter of whom played trans character Bernadette in the original film—on board to reprise their rolesFor a second I thought “Wait, how can all the three of them be on board if one of them is dead?”, and then I felt like an idiot by realizing I was thinking of Richard Harris, instead of Terence Stamp…Also, am I missing something? Why the need of specifically mentioning which character Stamp played?
Cynthia, a Filipinia woman played by Cynthia Campos
Cynthia Campos was played by Julia Cortez IIRC.
I can’t believe they didn’t mention that they got fourth star of the film, too:https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/apr/11/the-30-year-hunt-to-find-the-priscilla-queen-of-the-desert-bus-my-jaw-was-on-the-ground
It’s a shame Swayze has passed because someone should be green lighting a To Wong Fu sequel asap just to have it come out around the same timeI am waiting for outrage Twitter and Tik Tok to proclaim this is an awful idea because none of these actors are really drag queens or trans despite the original being a a great movie and well loved in the LGTBQ+ community(at least by Gen X and Millenial queers).
Within such outrage there’s a point that more LGBTQ+ stories should be told by LGBTQ+ people. Don’t think anyone would reasonably argue against that.
That said, movies are made for many different reasons, and getting the band back together to make a sequel is a reasonable idea.
stephan elliott (writer and director of the original) is gay so the original was a story told by an LGBTQ+ individual
I know. We’re talking about the actors.