A trailer for Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Amy Winehouse biopic “Back to Black” will be released in the coming days. For the time being, I can report that a May 10, 2024 US release date has been confirmed by Focus Features.
“Back to Black” completed production in April. “Industry” actress Marisa Abela is playing Winehouse. This has been a passion project of Taylor-Johnson’s for almost a decade — she was one of Winehouse’s closest friends.
The screenplay for “Back to Black” is being penned by Matt Greenhalgh, who previously collaborated with Taylor-Johnson on “Nowhere Boy” and also wrote “Control,” the acclaimed biopic about late Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis.
Let’s just forget that Taylor-Johnson also directed 2015’s critically-maligned “Fifty Shades of Grey.” She has more or less disowned that film, citing the creative difficulties she had working with the novel’s author E. L. James.
The theatrical version runs 108 minutes, so we're talking a nearly 2-hour-10-minute cut of a movie that works because it's lean, and I'm not sure anyone needs that.