(Updated 04/22/2024)
Some voices stop you in your tracks. When she sang, Amy Winehouse conjured the energy of soul, blues and jazz. Her lyrics were unvarnished poems that communicated yearning and reckoned with failure, and she performed them with a style and phrasing that were entirely her own. No one else in pop music did what Winehouse did.
Amy Winehouse died in 2011, leaving behind a complex legacy of artistic achievement and erratic public behavior. BACK TO BLACK tells her story, with Marisa Abela playing Winehouse. Here's everything you need to know about BACK TO BLACK, including the first full trailer.
What's the Back to Black Release Date?
Focus Features will release BACK TO BLACK in movie theatres on May 17, 2024.
Watch the Back to Black Trailer
This trailer quickly sets up the arc of Winehouse's career while also indicating the uncompromising aspects of her personality that both defined her music and forged her into an unconventional, unpredictable star.
Who's in the Cast of Back to Black?
Marisa Abela of the HBO series "Industry" leads the BACK TO BLACK cast as Amy Winehouse, and the trailer above should give you a very good idea of how she approached the role. Winehouse's volatile spouse, Blake Fielder-Civil, is played by Jack O'Connell ("Skins," UNBROKEN).
Winehouse's family are particularly important to her story, and her mother, Janis, is played by Juliet Cowan ("The Power," "Culprits") and her father Mitch by Eddie Marsan (WRATH OF MAN, DEADPOOL 2). Lesley Manville (PHANTOM THREAD) plays Amy's grandmother, Cynthia Winehouse.
Does Marisa Abela Sing Amy Winehouse Songs in Back to Black?
Yes, star Marisa Abela performs new versions of some of Amy Winehouse's songs in BACK TO BLACK. We don't know how many, but at least some of the performances and recording sessions dramatized for the movie will feature Abela's voice rather than a performance lip-synced to recordings of Winehouse.
Additionally, the score for the movie is a suite of original music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. The two have scored a wide variety of movies, from THE PROPOSITION to the recent BLONDE and THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD, for which they composed their most powerful score.
Who Directed Back to Black?
BACK TO BLACK is directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, the British photographer and filmmaker who previously directed NOWHERE BOY, based on the teen years of John Lennon, and the first FIFTY SHADES OF GREY movie. Taylor-Johnson was announced as this movie's director in 2022. She filmed BACK TO BLACK throughout the first half of 2023.
BACK TO BLACK opens on May 17.
All images courtesy of Focus Features.