The director of the classic Australian road-trip movie The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is planning a sequel, as reported in US publication Deadline this week.
Stephan Elliott, who directed the first movie in 1993, said that another outing of the fabulous lavender bus ‘is happening’, and that all three original cast members – Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce – will return.
‘The original cast is on board, I’ve got a script that everybody likes, we’re still working out deals. … It’s happening,’ Elliott told Deadline.
It’s been 30 years since Priscilla‘s initial release, where is played at a midnight screening in Un Certain Regard at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. In the film, two drag queens (Weaving, Pearce) and a transgender woman (Stamp) contract to perform a drag show at a resort in Alice Springs, a town in the remote Australian desert.
As they head west from Sydney aboard their lavender bus, Priscilla, the three friends come to the forefront of a comedy of errors, encountering a number of strange characters, as well as incidents of homophobia, whilst widening comfort zones and finding new horizons.
It’s fair to say that attitudes on LGBTQIA+ issues have changed a fair bit since the 1990s – particularly in the space of trans identities – so a return to the world of Priscilla and its characters Bernadette, Adam/Felicia, and Tick/Mitzi will likely bring with it new comfort zones to push and unfamiliar horizons to widen.
Read: Will Drag Race Down Under erase our ocker drag past?
Elliott also told Deadline that he had been wanting to make Priscilla 2 for ‘years’, and had played with various ideas like putting the cast ‘on a cruise ship,’ or ‘on a train’. Only time will tell if we get the trio in a lavender Tesla Cybertruck.
Interestingly, the original bus used for film was recently recovered after being thought lost since filming finished in 1993. It was found on a property in New South Whales where it had suffered extensive damage from wildfire and floods. The History Trust of South Australia recently launched a fundraiser to restore it to its original glory. Elliot said that the bus ‘will feature’ in the new film.
And if you’re wondering, Elliott confirmed that the sequel will indeed get a soundtrack consisting of ‘old disco classics’, and ‘contemporary as well’.
Stephan Elliott will serve as director, writer and producer, and he is intending to partner with another producer.
