The international teaser trailer and poster for BACK TO BLACK, the biopic about the life of Amy Winehouse, have been released with Winehouse saying: “I don’t write songs to be famous, I write songs because I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t.” and declaring she “ain’t no Spice Girl!”
The highly anticipated feature film from acclaimed filmmaker Sam Taylor-Johnson will be in cinemas across Ireland on 12 April 2024.
With break-out star Marisa Abela (Industry) as music icon Amy Winehouse, a press release says, BACK TO BLACK will focus on Amy’s extraordinary genius, creativity and honesty that infused everything she did. A journey that took her from the craziness and colour of 90’s Camden High Street to global adoration – and back again.
Supporting Abela are BAFTA-winning actor Jack O’Connell as Blake Fielder-Civil, Eddie Marsan as Mitch Winehouse, Juliet Cowan as Janis Winehouse and Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated Lesley Manville as Amy’s grandmother, Cynthia.
Director Sam Taylor-Johnson says: ‘Discovering a talent like Marisa Abela is akin to finding gold dust. The moment she looked into the lens at her first audition I knew she was the perfect actor to play Amy Winehouse. She put in an enormous amount of work, attention to every detail and she trained daily for hours to be able to sing throughout the entire movie. She doesn’t impersonate Amy, she inhabits her.‘
BACK TO BLACK is written by Matt Greenhalgh (Nowhere Boy, Control), while Giles Martin (Rocketman, The Beatles: Get Back) handles music production and Nina Gold (1917, The Power of the Dog) leads the casting of the film.
Alison Owen (Saving Mr Banks, Me Before You, Elizabeth), Debra Hayward (Les Miserables, Bridget Jones’s Baby) of Monumental Pictures are producing, Nicky Kentish-Barnes (What’s Love Got To Do With it?, Everest) executive produces, with Nina Gold leading the casting of the film. EVP Global Production Ron Halpern and SVP Global Production Joe Naftalin executive produce and are overseeing for STUDIOCANAL.
Amy Winehouse is widely considered one of the greatest artists in recent history, selling more than 30 million records worldwide, and today generating more than 80 million streams per month. Her acclaimed produced 2006 album Back To Black, propelled her to global stardom, going on to win a (then) record breaking 5 Grammy Awards, including Record Of The Year and Song of The Year for hit single Rehab.
Winehouse’s career was cut short in 2011 when she died aged 27.
Multi prize-winning visual artist and filmmaker Taylor-Johnson helmed the 2015 blockbuster Fifty Shades of Grey starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan. Her additional credits include the acclaimed John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy and A Million Little Pieces, both starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Greenhalgh is an award-winning screenwriter best known for Control about Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, Nowhere Boy about John Lennon’s younger years. He was BAFTA nominated in 2018 for Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool.
