Earlier this month, Fifty Shades of Grey’s Sam Taylor-Johnson was enlisted to direct a new biopic about Amy Winehouse. Now it looks like the film has its eyes set on an actress to play the late singer.
Varietyreports via “multiple sources” that Marisa Abela, one of the stars of HBO’s Industry, is “a frontrunner” to star in Back to Black. The 25-year-old British actress, who portrays Yasmin Kara-Hanani in the London-based critical hit, also starred in Sky TV show Cobra as well as the 2022 crime thriller Rogue Agent. Later this year, Abela will star opposite Haley Bennett and Sam Riley in the drama series She Is Love.
“It’s believed Abela is in discussions, though the role isn’t yet locked in and a small group of other actors are also believed to be in the mix,” the outlet writes.
As previously reported, Back to Black will explore the rise and death of Winehouse, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 27. It’s co-written by Taylor-Johnson and her Nowhere Boy screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh, with Studiocanal, Alison Owen, Debra Hayward, and Tracey Seaward serving as producers.
The Amy Winehouse estate—including her father, who criticized the critically acclaimed documentary Amy—is on board with the biopic. The 2015 doc that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Mitchell Winehouse spoke to the Sun in 2018 regarding a planned feature film about his daughter. When asked to share his thoughts on Lady Gaga potentially playing her, he said, “I wouldn’t mind betting it would be an unknown, young, English—London, cockney—actress who looks a bit like Amy.”
