STUDIOCANAL, Monumental Pictures and Focus Features today reveal that Nick Cave and Warren Ellis will score BACK TO BLACK, the highly anticipated feature film from acclaimed filmmaker and visual artist Sam Taylor-Johnson opening in cinemas across the UK & Ireland on 12 April 2024 and the USA 17 May 2024.
Cave and Ellis were pictured in the studio with Taylor-Johnson this week.
Charting Winehouse’s vibrant years living in London and her intense journey to fame, Taylor-Johnson directs break-out star Marisa Abela (Industry) as music icon Amy Winehouse.
Supporting Abela are BAFTA-winning actor Jack O’Connell as Blake Fielder-Civil, Eddie Marsan as Mitch Winehouse, Juliet Cowan as Janis Winehouse and Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated Lesley Manville as Amy’s grandmother, Cynthia.
Featuring many of Amy’s hit songs recorded and performed in the film by Marisa Abela, BACK TO BLACK is made with the full support of Universal Music Group and SONY Music Publishing.
Director Sam Taylor-Johnson comments “Nick and Warren were the only musicians in my mind to score BACK TO BLACK. Over the years I’ve listened to everything they’ve composed and longed to realize the dream of working together. Their sensibility as well as understanding of this story has led to a profoundly deep and moving film score.”
BACK TO BLACK is written by Matt Greenhalgh (Nowhere Boy, Control), while Giles Martin (Rocketman, The Beatles: Get Back) handles music production and Nina Gold (1917, The Power of the Dog) leads the casting of the film.
BACK TO BLACK is produced by Alison Owen (Saving Mr Banks, Me Before You, Elizabeth) and Debra Hayward (Les Miserables, Bridget Jones’s Baby) of Monumental Pictures alongside Nicky Kentish-Barnes (About Time, Everest, About A Boy). Sam Taylor-Johnson is executive producer, alongside STUDIOCANAL CEO Anna Marsh, Ron Halpern and Joe Naftalin who executive produce on behalf of STUDIOCANAL.
Cave and Ellis’ creative chemistry is rooted in their long history of music making, both as collaborators and as individual artists. They first crossed paths in 1993, when Ellis played violin on several songs for the Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album, Let Love In, before going on to join the band as a full time member for the following ten albums to the present day. The two have also recorded as Grinderman, formed in 2006, and have composed and recorded numerous, film, TV and theatre soundtracks together including The Proposition, Lawless, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Road, Blonde, Dahmer and many more.
