Bob Marley Biopic Planned By Wife Rita

About a month after the announcement that Martin Scorsese would make a documentary about Bob Marley's life comes the announcement that Marley's widow Rita has given her blessing to a biopic of the reggae great's life, to be produced by The Weinstein Company. Based on Rita's 2004 autobiography, No Woman No Cry as adapted by screenwriter Lizzie Borden (1986's Working Girls), the film will span her account from the earliest days in the streets of Kingston's Trenchtown to his death from cancer at the age of 36. Rita will co-produce with Rudy Langlais (producer of The Hurricane and a sometime editor of mine). Earlier attempts to make a Marley biopic with Ron Shelton (later, George Armitage) directing fell apart. (And Rita was earlier linked to a version that woud have starred Jamie Foxx and been directed by Oscar-nominee Rachid Bouchareb (Dust of Life).

Reported Variety:

While no casting decisions have been made, Rita Marley has already expressed an interest in the Fugees' Lauryn Hill to portray her. "Lauryn would be ideal," said Marley. "She sees my life as her life." Hill is married to Bob Marley's son from another relationship, Rohan. Rita also lobbied for her grandson Stefan to play Bob Marley because he's a "spitting image." The film is being touted as an "epic romance," and will include the assassination attempt on Bob Marley's life that resulted in Rita being shot in the head.

The Scorsese doc, like his forthcoming Rolling Stones concert film, Shine a Light, will be a venture joined by Steve Bing's Shangri-La Entertainment and international sales agent Fortissimo Films. (The Stones film, shot in New York in November, 2006 and originally set to debut last August, was shifted to this April to allow the Stones time to promote it--their A Bigger Bang concert tour, the biggest in rock history at over $558,000 million--closed in London that August.)

Tuff Gong Pictures and Shangri-La are producing the film, also authorized by Marley's family. ("I am thrilled that the Marley family will finally have the opportunity to document our father's legacy and are truly honored to have Mr. Scorsese guide the journey," son Ziggy Marley said.) It's slated for release on Feb. 6, 2010, on what would have been Marley's 65th birthday. Fans online have already suggested "Redemption Song" as a title.

(Rohan Marley and Lauryn Hill arrive at a February 2006 pre-Grammy concert by The Fugees)

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