A Bob Marley Biopic – Without The Music?

Whoever drew up the papers to buy the rights to Rita Marley’s biography of her late husband Bob to make it into a movie forgot one minor detail – to include the rights to his music to be used in the film as well. That little snafu is now costing the Rita Marley-executively produced biopic dearly because the rights went to another Marley film – being executively produced by son Ziggy.

Competition is the name of this game. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Rita’s film – being produced by the Weinstein Co. – is scheduled for a late 2009 release while Ziggy’s Martin Scorsese-directed flick has a February 2010 release to coincide with Bob’s birthday. Family members are refusing to sell rights to the late singer’s music to the Weinstein flick because Scorsese refuses to release his film in a timely conjunction with the other - and is asking that the Weinstein movie be pushed back until 2015.

Granted, I could drive Mack trucks through the gaping holes in this story. My first question is – don’t Rita and Ziggy speak to each other? It seems odd that both sides are playing totally dumb to the fact that they were ignorant about the others film. Bob Marley’s family and close confidants control much of his legacy and there hasn’t been a movie made about the Rastafarian yet. So, how could you not know your mom is making a film about your father at the same time you are? Worse yet, how could you assume you could make a successful film about a musician, without using his music? Maybe it’s just me, but something’s off…