The biopic about Amy Winehouse‘s life, Back to Black, now has a release date in the U.K. The film is set to drop on April 12, 2024, but doesn’t have a U.S. release yet. Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and written by Martin Greenhalgh, Back to Black stars Marisa Abela as Winehouse and Jack O’Connell as Winehouse’s former husband Blake Fielder-Civil.
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A plan for a biopic covering Winehouse’s life and career was initially announced in 2018 when her estate shared they’d signed a deal with StudioCanal following many failed attempts at moving forward with projects by other studios. Production began in 2022, with filming taking place from January to April 2023 in London. Focus Features is set to distribute the film in the U.S. following the U.K. premiere.
[RELATED: Pete Doherty Shares Heartbreak of Still Listening to Amy Winehouse’s Music “Most Days”]
Cast
27-year-old British actress Marisa Abela is set to portray Winehouse following a role as Teen-Talk Barbie in Barbie, as well as a current role on the 2020 HBO series Industry as Yasmin Kara-Hanani. Abela graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2019, going on to star in the series COBRA the next year. This year, she was named as British film magazine Screen International‘s Star of Tomorrow.
Jack O’Connell will portray Blake Fielder-Civil, who was married to Winehouse from 2007 until 2009. O’Connell is known for playing James Cook in the series Skins, as well as roles in the 2009 film Eden Lake, Netflix’s 2017 miniseries Godless, and a starring role in the 2022 film Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Additional cast includes Eddie Marsan as Mitch Winehouse, Amy’s father; Juliet Cowan as Janis Winehouse-Collins, Amy’s mother; and Lesley Manville as Cynthia Winehouse, Amy’s grandmother.
Premise
The biopic will cover the beginning of Winehouse’s career as a jazz singer in the early 2000s, then progress through her career. It will cover her rise to stardom, development of her unique sound, and her speedy transformation from a relatively unknown North London performer to a Grammy Award-winner.
Winehouse’s debut album was Frank from 2003, heavily influenced by jazz and soul. She released Back to Black in 2006, which catapulted her to fame and became one of the best-selling records in U.K. history.
In 2015—four years after her tragic death in 2011—the documentary Amy was released. It was widely criticized by Winehouse’s estate, in particular her father. While he did contribute to it, he distanced himself from it following its release, claiming it painted him and Amy in a negative light. In an interview with British morning program This Morning at the time, he said, “The film is representing me in a not very good way. There is no balance, there’s nothing about [The Amy Winehouse Foundation]. It’s portraying me and Amy in not a very good light.”
He seemed conflicted about the film, praising the raw footage of Amy but telling The Daily Mirror at the time, “Half of me wants to say don’t go see it. But then the other part of me is saying maybe go see the videos, put your headphones in and listen to Amy’s music while they’re watching the videos. It’s the narrative that’s the problem.”
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