The upcoming Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black may be close to finding its leading actor. According to a new report, Marisa Abela has emerged as a frontrunner to fill the shoes of the late Grammy winner.
Variety reports that the British TV star 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.” Abela has previously been seen as Yasmin Kara-Hanani in Season 1 of the HBO series Industry, which follows a group of young, ambitious investment bankers in London, and before that appeared in the British political drama COBRA.
Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson with a script by Matt Greenhalgh, the upcoming biopic is said to have the full support of Winehouse’s father, Mitch Winehouse, who ha directs the late singer’s estate since her untimely death in 2011.
Previously, the elder Winehouse, who was also featured prominently in the 2015 Academy Award-winning documentary Amy as well as 2021’s Reclaiming Amy, had previously shot down rumors that Lady Gaga was in talks to play his daughter onscreen. “I wouldn’t mind betting it would be an unknown, young, English — London, cockney — actress who looks a bit like Amy,” he said back in 2018, adding, “What we want is somebody to portray Amy in the way that she was…the funny, brilliant, charming and horrible person that she was.”
Back to Black isn’t the only project about the “Rehab” singer that’s attempted to get off the ground recently, either. Back in September, another biopic based on Daphne Barak’s 2010 book Saving Amy was announced to be in the works at Halcyon Studios, but Winehouse’s estate denounced the project as an unauthorized attempt to memorialize her life.