The family of legendary Bob Marley is refusing to release the license to all of his music for an upcoming biopic produced by the Weinstein Company and executive produced by the late Reggae phenomenon’s widow, Rita Marley.
In competition is a Martin Scorsese documentary, timed to coincide with Marley‘s birthday, produced by the family’s own Tuff Gong Pictures and Steven Bing‘s Shangri Production banner, which would be the first theatrical documentary to release the Reggae star’s songs.
“Martin Scorsese doesn’t want to go out with a competing project, and Steven Bing has made deals with companies” said the president of Marley‘s music publisher, Blue Mountain Music‘s Chris Blackwell. “The Weinstein project has put the documentary into jeopardy.”
Other Marley relatives which are closely involved with the Scorsese documentary say that they were not informed of the projected release date of the Weinstein‘s spin on the life of Marley, and feel that it could ultimately conflict with the release date release date of their own project in February 2010, only months after the Weinstein project scheduled release.
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President and music publisher, Blackwell says he would like to see the Weinstein project delayed at least until 2015, to avoid the two projects continuing to bump heads thus far.
“All our efforts and support are currently directed toward the documentary,” said the Reggae legend’s son, Ziggy Marley, who is executive producer of the untitled Scorsese film. “We believe that this project is the best way to represent our father’s life from his perspective, and any other film project pertaining to our father will be empty without his music to support it.“
Speculations have been made that the Marleys supporting the Scorsese documentary have negotiated a ploy to provoke the Weinsteins to buy Marley‘s music rights or to increase the price for the license. The Marley family’s attorney Terri Dipalo has denied these claims.
Executives at Blue Mountain Music Group expect a negotiation to be made soon, in hopes that Harvey Weinstein will agree to postpone the biopic.
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Weinstein Co. spokesman Matthew Frankel responded, “We have great respect for the Marley family and Chris Blackwell and are in discussions to look at ways to mutually benefit both projects.“
Production and distribution giant, The Weinstein Company has teamed up with producer Rudy Langlais, (Sugar Hill, The Hurricane) to begin filming the biopic early next year, with a hopeful release date in the latter part of 2009.
Reported by Krysten Hughes.
