The meteoric rise and tragic fall of British pop superstar, Amy Winehouse is coming to the big screen. The project will be shopped to foreign buyers at the upcoming Cannes Film Market.
Using never-before-seen archival footage, the untitled film will recount Winehouse’s career and life. The project will be a collaboration between Universal Music and acclaimed documentary director Asif Kapadia. The untitled Winehouse doc reunites Kapadia with producer James Gay-Rees, who worked together on the award-winning doc Senna.
“This is an incredibly modern, emotional and relevant film that has the power to capture the zeitgeist and shine a light on the world we live in, in a way that very few films can,” said Kapadia and Gay-Rees.
“Amy was a once-in-a-generation talent who captured everyone’s attention; she wrote and sung from the heart and everyone fell under her spell. But tragically Amy seemed to fall apart under the relentless media attention, her troubled relationships, her global success and precarious lifestyle. As a society we celebrated her huge success but then we were quick to judge her failings when it suited us,” they continued.
“Asif and James have the remarkable ability to bring a moving and thought-provoking story to life, as evidenced by Senna. We look forward to seeing their vision of Amy Winehouse,” Focus International co-president Alison Thompson said.
Winehouse, who rose to international fame with her second album Back to Black, died in 2011 of accidental alcohol poisoning. Her breakthough album has sold over 12 million copies worldwide since its release in 2006.