Tuff Gong Licenses Bob Marley Music To Scorsese Film & Refuse It To Rita Marley Biopic

Rita Marley is notorious for her tight grip on the licensing and rights to Bob Marley's multimedia legacy. Every photo, every song, every document of the beloved singer published after his death has to be approved by his widow. And she usually says no. So when news broke that The Weinstein Company was making a movie adaptation of Rita's controversial book "No Woman, No Cry," I naturally assumed they would have no problem obtaining a license for Bob's music. But, that was before Tuff Gong Pictures announced their partnership with director Martin Scorcese to create a film about Bob Marley's life. The conflict was immediately noticeable - even the press releases seemed to be competing with each other! I don't know if there was a showdown or not, but the multi-talented Marley boys put there foot down. Tuff Gong is refusing to license the Weinstein project, stating that the Scorsese and Tuff Gong production is a more "accurate" portrayal of the reggae icon and that the release dates of the 2 movies are too close together to support both. Elder son Ziggy is the executive producer of the Tuff Gong Picture; he recently told the press:

"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."

There's a really interesting dynamic happening between these 2 films. If I have time, I will add more links in the comments section. I'm curious to find out how the family feels about the story Rita tells in her book and if that is an influence on their decision not to support it...You can read more about it at PR-Inside.comZiggy Marley:Stephen and Damian Marley: