Late Grammy-winning British retro-soul singer Amy Winehouse’s father, slammed the recently announced biopic on her saying the production company has not reached out to him for permission.
Halcyon Studios recently revealed that a biopic on the life of the late singer is currently in production. The project was announced after it optioned Daphne Barak’s 2010 book ‘Saving Amy’.
Mitch Winehouse, Amy’s father and administrator of her estate, told TMZ that the project with Halcyon Studios cannot go forward, because the estate already has its own plans for a biopic and owns all the rights. Mitch alleged that neither the studio nor Daphne has reached out to him to seek permission for the production. He further told that Amy’s record label, Universal was also not contacted for using any of her music.
For her part, Daphne said that the project is not a biopic, but rather her story with her footage featuring herself with Amy and Bill Gunasti. She claimed, “I have all of the releases and legal agreements needed. Just like the NFTs being marketed on OG2D, this material is also all legally my property to sell.” However, Mitch disagreed with the same and told TMZ that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened where people and production companies try to use Amy’s image in various projects, but the estate has denied it.
Meanwhile, Mitch also revealed that there is an authorized biopic in the works with a large production company in the UK along with Universal, with plans to begin filming next year. Amy, the Grammy-winning British retro-soul singer, died at the age of 27 in July 2011. An inquiry into Amy’s death confirmed she died of accidental alcohol poisoning.
