Amy Winehouse Biopic in the Works with Sam Taylor-Johnson Directing
Vocal legend Amy Winehouse is now getting the big-screen biopic treatment.
The late Grammy winner, who died in 2011 at age 27, will be at the center of a musical biopic helmed by Sam Taylor-Johnson (“Fifty Shades of Grey,” “A Million Little Pieces”). Deadline first reported that Studiocanal is backing the film, currently titled “Back to Black” after Winehouse’s hit album.
Matt Greenhalgh is penning the script, teaming up again with director Taylor-Johnson after collaborating on 2009’s John Lennon story “Nowhere Boy.” Studiocanal is producing with Alison Owen and Debra Hayward alongside Tracey Seaward.
The film will follow Winehouse’s life and rise to fame before dying of an alcohol and drug overdose in July 2011. Multiple projects have since been in the works attempting to capture Winehouse’s legacy, with Noomi Rapace previously attached to star in a Lotus Entertainment vehicle. Tania Raymonde also was linked to a separate film about Winehouse.
While no narrative feature has yet to be released in the 11 years since Winehouse’s death, the A24’s documentary “Amy” from 2015 won Best Documentary at the Oscars and made more than $23 million at the box office.
The upcoming “Back to Black” is being made with “full support” from the Winehouse estate. Director Taylor-Johnson and the film’s producers are currently casting the project.
Taylor-Johnson got her start in directing music videos, being behind the camera for multiple Elton John songs and The Weeknd’s “Earned It” for the “Fifty Shades of Grey” soundtrack. She currently is in pre-production on the historical drama “Rothko” about the legal battle over painter Mark Rothko’s estate; Michael Stuhlbarg, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Russell Crowe star.
Longtime Winehouse collaborator Mark Ronson recently shared behind-the-scenes audio of Winehouse’s raw vocals on 2006 ballad “Back to Black.” Ronson shared two TikTok videos explaining her natural talent.
“Amy came to my studio right here and we met for the first time and I instantly loved her,” Ronson explained. “She played me all this great ’60s music and she left and I got very inspired and I came up with this piano right here.”
He continued, “The next day she came in and wrote these incredible lyrics which she scribbled in the back room,” he continued, before playing on his computer the first takes of Winehouse singing “We never said goodbye with words, I died a hundred deaths.”
The two videos had the respective captions: “All hail the lioness” and “A little more demo magic from the Queen.”
@markronson #stitch with @ruben.tt all hail the lioness
@markronson Reply to @_catdeluca A little more demo magic from the Queen