Last week, news broke that “Industry” star Marisa Abela would play Amy Winehouse in Samuel Taylor-Johnson‘s upcoming biopic “Back To Black.” And now there’s the first bit of additional casting news. Deadline reports that Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan, and Lesley Manville join the cast of the upcoming film, with production currently underway in London.
So who do the three actors play in “Back To Black”? O’Connell plays Blake Fielder-Civil, Winehouse’s ex-husband and lover of her life. The pair married in 2006 but divorced acrimoniously after a relationship laden with booze, drugs, and rehab stints. As for Marsan, he plays Winehouse’s father, while Manville plays her maternal grandmother.
Taylor-Johnson reunites with “Nowhere Boy” scribe Matt Greenhalgh for “Back to Black,” a project he’s had long in the making. The director and Winehouse were old friends from their up-and-comer days in Camden borough of London in the late’90s-early ’00s. He’s wanted to bring Winehouse’s story to the big screen for years now. The upcoming film focuses on Winehouse’s rise to fame from playing Soho music houses to her record-breaking Grammy win for her 2006 album “Back To Black.” The singer passed away in 2011 from alcohol poisoning.
In 2022, O’Connell starred in EPIX‘s “SAS Rogue Heroes” and Netflix‘s D.H. Lawrence adaptation “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.” He plays race car driver Peter Collins next for Michael Mann in “Ferrari,” hopefully in theaters later this year.
Marsan stayed busy last year with turns in “The Contractor,” “Choose Or Die,” and “Vesper.” Up next, he stars in Guy Ritchie‘s long-delayed “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre,” in US theaters in March. Also on deck for Marsan in 2023: the thriller “Fair Play,” set for its world premieres at the Sundance Film Festival later this month,” “Emperor,” and “Midas Man,” a biopic about music entrepreneur Brian Epstein.
Manville recently played Princess Margaret on the latest season of “The Crown.” Other recent credits include the thriller “Let Him Go.” She stars next in “The Critic,” a British period-piece suspense film with Ian McKellen, Mark Strong, and Gemma Arterton.
As for a release date for “Back To Black,” don’t expect it in theaters until 2024.