British actor Marisa Abela has been cast to play singer Amy Winehouse in a film about her life set to begin filming in London next week.
The announcement from the film's distribution company comes just days before production on the biopic starts on Monday.
Winehouse won six Grammy Awards and was nominated for eight during her short but incredibly successful career in the music industry.
Born in 1983 in London, she died of alcoholpoisoning in 2011 in the same city.
Her mother worked as a pharmacist while during Winehouse's life, and her father was a taxicab driver who she divorced when Winehouse was nine.
She saw international fame in a short timed during her career, singing music with the influences of Motown in the 1960s and the soul of the 1970s.
Her trademark heavy Cleopatra-style eye makeup and large jet-black hair became part of her iconic presence around the globe.
Her tumultuous romances and substance abuse issues filled tabloids and became nearly as well known to the world as her music.
The upcoming biopic about Winehouse will be called "Back to Black" and will follow her "vibrant years living in London" in theearly part of her path to fame.
