Mark Ronson has defended the upcoming movie about his late friend Amy Winehouse.

Back to Black, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, has been heavily criticised on social media, with users questioning the casting of Marisa Abela as Winehouse and whether the project was necessary following the 2015 documentary Amy.

Ronson, who was friends and collaborators with Winehouse before her death in 2011, defended the controversial film backstage at the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday.

“The only thing I know about the film is I know Sam quite well and I read the script and I feel what it did really nicely was… I was reminded of her humour and it really caught that well,” he told reporters, according to Mail Online.

“I think she just had this whip-smart razor sense of humour which is one of her many gifts and they got that very nice in the film. I’m looking forward to seeing it.”

The music producer made the remarks after he and Andrew Wyatt won the Best Song award for I’m Just Ken from Barbie.

His comments come days after the first trailer for Back to Black was released, giving fans a glimpse of Abela as the Rehab singer, Jack O’Connell as her then-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, Eddie Marsan as her father Mitch, and Lesley Manville as her grandmother Cynthia.

Back to Black will be released in cinemas on 12 April.

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