Priscilla, Queen of the Desert sequel announced 30 years after ...
A sequel to the Australian cult classic movie The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, is in the works with the original main cast all set to return on screen.
"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 of the celebrated 90s movie Stephan Elliott told Deadline.
"The original cast is on board, I've got a script that everybody likes, we're still working out deals. … It's happening," Mr Elliott said.
The news comes 30 years after the movie, starring Hugo Weaving, Terence Stamp and Guy Pearce, was released at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.
Priscilla became a surprise hit, with its positive portrayal of LGBT characters winning audiences over worldwide and lifting it to the status of a beloved classic, at a time where drag artistry remained largely invisible to mainstream audiences.
It tells the story of three drag performers, played by Weaving, Stamp and Pearce, travelling through the Australian outback on a bus called Priscilla.
The movie tells the story of two drag queens and a trans woman travelling on a bus through the Australian outback.(Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc)
Weaving plays Anthony "Tick" Belrose, a Sydney drag queen going by the drag name Mitzi Del Bra, who accepts an offer to perform a four-week run at an Alice Springs casino managed by his estranged wife Marion.
Tick is joined by his friends and fellow performers, bereaved trans woman Bernadette Bassenger (played by Stamp) and younger queen Adam Whitely (Pearce), who's drag name is Felicia Jollygoodfellow, and the three get on the road in a large tour bus — Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
The cast's glittery dresses and extravagant headpieces won the Oscar for best costume design for the work of Australian costume designer Tim Chappel at the 67th Academy Awards, and the movie also received a BAFTA for best makeup and hair.
Mr Chappel spoke to the ABC of the film's lasting impact in 2014, saying he is regularly contacted by people from around the world who have only just seen it for the first time.
"I get emails from young people and young gay people in other countries who say the film has opened their world and made them feel free," he said.
The story has since been turned into an award-winning stage musical, called Priscilla The Party.
Mr Elliott said he was hesitant to make a sequel until now out of fear of repeating himself.
"I thought, what am I going to do? Stick them on a cruise ship, stick them on a train? You name it, over the years I've been pitched Priscilla 2 in spades."
It was the death of his parents within two years of each other that changed his mind.
"I was writing and configuring after dad died in early 2020," Mr Elliott told Deadline.
"Then mum died in early 2023. It was a tough one, and so I finally realised that I do have something to write about."
The soundtrack to the follow-up will feature "old disco classics", but also more modern pop music, Mr Elliott said, flagging the possibility of a Lady Gaga number.
"We've got to move with the times," he adds.
Priscilla the bus herself was thought to be lost for almost 25 years, until it resurfaced at a rural property in New South Wales in 2019, having survived bushfires and floods.
The bus, which is being restored with the help of a public fundraising campaign and will eventually be displayed at the National Motor Museum in South Australia, will feature in the movie, Mr Elliot said.
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, first released in 1994, is to finally receive a sequel.(Supplied: Fiona Crowe)
"I don't know how it survived but we have a plan," he said.
"It's the 30th anniversary, the bus has been found, Priscilla the Party! is about to roll out globally and it's time for Priscilla's final adventure to get made."
Mr Elliott will again serve as director and writer, as well as a co-producer.
An official announcement on the sequel will come soon after various negotiations are completed, he said, with original creatives welcomed back on board if they are available.
