News

Rita Marley has greenlit the first film based on the life of her late husband, reggae icon Bob Marley. Produced and distributed by the Weinstein Co., the biopic will be a silver screen version of Rita's 2004 autobiography No Woman No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley, which covers everything from his childhood to the couple's rough 15-year marriage and Marley's death from cancer in 1981.

Two actors will star as Marley: one playing him at 15, and the other covering his adult life. No casting decisions have been made yet, but Rita says it may not be star-driven outside of one key role …

"Lauryn [Hill] would be ideal [to play me]," she told Billboard.com. "She sees my life as her life." As it turns out, Hill is married to some guy named Rohan—a.k.a. the son of Janet Hunt and Bob Marley—and has acted in such films as, err, Sister Act 2. (She has yet to accept any acting offer, as the script isn't finished yet.) According to producer Rudy Langlais (The Hurricane) we can expect an "epic romance" out of all this drama, including the assassination attempt they survived in December of 1976. As Langlais explained it to Billboard, "It's miraculous that Rita is still here after being shot in the head."

"Every inch of me is in there," Rita added, saying she'll be on the set every day once the film starts its principal photography phase early next year. "I don't want a fairy tale or Cinderella story."

—The ARTISTdirect Staff
03.05.08