Over a decade after the tragic death of Amy Winehouse, Fifty Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson has been tapped to direct a new biopic about the late singer, Variety reports.
Titled Back to Black, which shares the name of the singer’s second and final studio album, the forthcoming biopic will explore the rise and death of Winehouse, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 27.
The film will be written by Matt Greenhalgh, with Studiocanal, Alison Owen, Debra Hayward, and Tracey Seaward serving as producers on the project.
Variety notes that the Amy Winehouse Estate, including the late singer’s father Mitchell Winehouse, who previously criticized the critically acclaimed documentary Amy, are on board with the upcoming biopic. Amy, a 2015 documentary about the late singer that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.
Amy father’s Michael previously spoke to The Sun back in 2018 regarding a planned feature film about his daughter.
When asked to share his thoughts on Lady Gaga potentially playing Amy in a biopic film about his daughter, Winehouse said, per Variety: “I wouldn’t mind betting it would be an unknown, young, English — London, cockney — actress who looks a bit like Amy.
Michael Winehouse added, “What we want is somebody to portray Amy in the way that she was…the funny, brilliant, charming and horrible person that she was. There’s no point really me making the film because I’m her dad. But to get the right people to do it, that’s very important, and we will.”