‘Back to Black’ Biopic Shares First Look of ‘Industry’ Star Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse

The Sam Taylor-Johnson-directed Amy Winehouse biopic has cast Industry star Marisa Abela to play the late singer, Variety reports.

Titled Back to Black, which shares the name of Winehouse’s second and final studio album, the film will be distributed by Focus Features, with Universal Pictures International handling international distribution.

Fifty Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson has been tapped to direct the new biopic, which will explore the rise and death of Winehouse, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 27. Production on the movie kicks off Jan. 16 in London.

The film is co-written by Taylor-Johnson and Nowhere Boy screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh, with Studiocanal, Alison Owen, Debra Hayward, and Tracey Seaward serving as producers. 

“My connection to Amy began when I left college and was hanging out in the creatively diverse London borough of Camden. I got a job at the legendary Koko Club, and I can still breathe every market stall, vintage shop and street,” Taylor-Johnson said in a statement. “A few years later Amy wrote her searingly honest songs whilst living in Camden. Like with me, it became part of her DNA. I first saw her perform at a talent show at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in Soho and it was immediately obvious she wasn’t just ‘talent,’ she was genius. As a filmmaker you can’t really ask for more.”

“I feel excited and humbled to have this opportunity to realize Amy’s beautifully unique and tragic story to cinema accompanied by the most important part of her legacy – her music. I am fully aware of the responsibility, with my writing collaborator — Matt Greenhalgh — I will create a movie that we will all love and cherish forever. Just like we do Amy.”