Not black enough? Movie-makers accused of 'blackface' after casting light-skinned actress Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone - only to darken her complexion and give her a prosthetic nose

Zoe Saldana has come under fire for donning 'blackface' in a trailer for the new Nina Simone biopic after her casting was attacked because she is too 'light skinned'.

Saldana, who plays the legendary performer and civil rights activist, appears to have darker skin and a wider nose in a poster and video promoting the movie.

The Afro-Latina actress, 37, tweeted a quote from Simone on Wednesday, only for the family of the late Feeling Good singer to demand she 'take Nina's name out your mouth for the rest of your life'.

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Zoe Saldana (left, how she looks normally, and right, in the trailer) has come under fire for donning 'blackface' in the trailer for a new Nina Simone biopic. 

Saldana's casting as legendary performer and civil rights activist Nina Simone (pictured) has been slammed

Saldana, 37, tweeted a quote from Simone on Wednesday, only for the family of the late Feeling Good singer to demand she 'take Nina's name out your mouth for the rest of your life'

This tweet from Nina Simone's estate's official Twitter account was sent out after the trailer was released

The trailer for Nina shows Saldana with darker skin and a prosthetic nose.

Supporters of Simone's music and work criticized movie bosses for casting Saldana - an American of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent - back in 2012.

After years of delays the movie is finally set to be released in April - and its trailer has caused outrage among the black community.

Simone's family unleashed their fury on Wednesday afternoon after the trailer's release, aiming their rage directly at Saldana.

The actress tweeted: '"I'll tell you what freedom is to me - No Fear... I mean really, no fear." #NinaSimone'.

The official Twitter feed for Simone's estate replied: 'Cool story but please take Nina's name out your mouth. For the rest of your life.'

Supporters of Simone's music and work criticized movie bosses for casting Saldana - an American of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent

Dozens of people blasted director Cynthia Mort and Saldana for the casting, saying it was disrespectful to darken the actress' face to play Simone

Dozens more questioned why film bosses had not chosen a darker-skinned actress for Nina, seeing as her skin color was such a huge part of her life

The account, which regularly posts links to performances by Simone, made another thinly-veiled swipe at Saldana by tweeting videos of her songs That Blackness and Go To Hell.

Dozens of people blasted director Cynthia Mort and Saldana for the casting, saying it was disrespectful to darken the actress' face to play Simone, who spent years of her life campaigning for civil rights. 

Anthea Butler tweeted: 'That Zoe Saldana pic as Nina Simone looks like the blackface of a bad Halloween of frat party.' 

Author Erica Jerome Dickey said: 'I'm a huge Nina Simone fan. So this matters. Nina battled racism/colorism to have her complexion painted on a face of a lighter hue. Damn.'

Eve Louise Ewing wrote: 'Nina Simone being darkskin is not a small detail. It was a huge part of her art & identity. Not casting appropriately is an affront to that.'

She added: 'How could you, as a black actress, know your history, sit in a makeup chair and see someone DARKENING YOUR SKIN and feel okay about it?!'

Mikki Kendall said: 'Nina Simone didn't write Four Women to have her actual skin color demeaned for a movie about her life. Come on now.' 

Another Twitter user posted: 'Colorism is SO deep that rather than hire a dark actress to play Nina Simone they hired a lighter skinned actress and put her in dark makeup.' 

Dozens more questioned why film bosses had not chosen a darker-skinned actress for Nina, seeing as her skin color was such a huge part of her life. 

Transformed: The new movie follows the late jazz legend as she attempts to make a comeback

Troubled: The singer is committed to a mental institution as her song Black Is The Color Of My True Love's hair plays

Fighter: The singer wrestles with nurses before being put into a straight jacket in the new biopic

Controversy: Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone in the film, left, and the singer in 1983

Last year, Saldana admitted in an interview with InStyle magazine that she might be the wrong woman for the role. 

'I didn’t think I was right for the part, and I know a lot of people will agree, but then again, I don’t think Elizabeth Taylor was right for Cleopatra either,' she said. 

Nina Simone's own daughter, Simone Kelly, called the casting into question in 2012.

She told the New York Times: 'My mother was raised at a time when she was told her nose was too wide, her skin was too dark. Appearance-wise, this is not the best choice.'

The new movie - which follows the separate, Oscar-nominated documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone? - follows the late jazz legend as she attempts to make a comeback with the help of her nurse and manager Clifton Henderson, played by David Oyelowo.

The trailer begins to the sound of Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair, as Simone is seen fighting off medical staff and police as she's being committing her to a hospital.

There, she meets Henderson and hires him as her manager. 

'You know who I am?' she asks.

'Yeah. My mother used to listen to you,' he replies. 

She then hires him to be her manager, saying: 'I want you to come with me. I'll pay you two thousand dollars as month. In return, you take care of all my affairs.'

The troubled artist, who struggled with alcohol, depression and bipolar disorder, is seen laying in bed, swilling champagne from the bottle and smoking, and then throwing the bottle at his head.

She is also seen trashing a room in anger, and waving a gun as she yells: 'Tell him to get my my money!'

'She's a complicated lady,' an advisor is heard saying. 

'Drinks, smokes, she's out of shape. No one wants to see her play the way she is now,' they add.

Oyelowo's character then pleads with her: 'What happened, Nina? Why are you playing in front of a hundred people and not twenty thousand?'

'I need you to help me make this happen,' he says of her comeback.

'I'll try,' she replies. 

Later, she says: 'I'll tell you what freedom means to me. No fear. If I could have that for half of my life, no fear, that's the only way that I can describe it.'

'Everyone thinks that you are crazy,' a man's voice tells her.

'What does that have to do with playing music,' Nina laughs.

The film, which was delayed for years after first screening at Cannes in 2014, will be released in the US in theaters and on demand on April 22, it was announced on Wednesday.

Simone died in 2003, aged 70.