Amy Winehouse biopic may have found its lead in Industry star Marisa Abela

Sam Taylor-Johnson's Amy Winehouse biopic may have found its lead in newcomer Marisa Abela.

According to Variety, the 25-year-old Industry and COBRA star is in early talks to play the late Amy Winehouse in Back to Black.

The Winehouse estate signed a deal for the film back in 2018, with father Mitch Winehouse saying that he "wouldn’t mind betting it would be an unknown, young, English – London, cockney – actress who looks a bit like Amy."

Brighton-born Abela, who is Matese, Libyan, Russian, and Polish, is also Jewish – something the film's creative team says is important in terms of authenticity to Amy's background. Also important to the creative team is that the role goes to a newcomer rather than a known actor or pop star (rather than the Madonna biopic route, which auditioned hundreds of Hollywood starlets before casting Ozarks star Julia Garner as the pop icon).

The actor plays Yasmin Kara-Hanani in the HBO and BBC drama Industry, Ellie Sutherland in Sky One's COBRA, and will appear in the upcoming crime thriller Rogue Agent, Jamie Adams' romantic drama She is Love, and Greta Gerwig's upcoming Barbie movie.

Back to Black is directed by Taylor-Johnson, director of the 2009 critically-acclaimed John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy, and written by Matt Greenhalgh, who penned the script for both Nowhere Boy and Anton Corbijn's Control, the latter of which chronicled the short life of Joy Division Ian Curtis. The Amy Winehouse biopic is said to be a passion project of Taylor-Johnson's, who was a close friend of the late singer.

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ based in New York City. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.