March 7, 2008
Lauryn Hill Considered to Portray Rita Marley in Upcoming
Film
It has been widely reported that Rita Marley has finalized a
production deal with The Weinstein Company that will bring to life her 2004
autobiography No Woman No Cry: My Life
with Bob Marley. Bob and Harvey
Weinstein secured the rights to the Rita Marley story a month after the
announcement that Martin Scorsese will direct the Bob Marley documentary slated
for a February 2010 release.
Grammy-winning Hip-Hop singer and film star Lauryn Hill has
been chosen by Rita to portray her mother-in-law in the film. “She sees my life as her life,” Rita Marley
was quoted as saying. Lauryn is married
to Marley son, Rohan. The two were also
considered for the Bob and Rita roles, based on Timothy White’s book Catch a’Fire, back in 1999. However, after Warner Bros. secured the song
rights, development was curtailed following several directors’ departures.
The Weinstein Co. version will chronicle the Marley’s
turbulent 15-year marriage, right up to his untimely passing from cancer on May
11, 1981. The untitled project from
producer Rudy Langlais is set to begin filming next year. Screenwriter Lizzie Borden is currently in Jamaica working
to finish the script.
Rita Marley, acting as executive producer, looks forward to
telling her story. “I’ve waited a long
time to tell this story,” she said. The
two met as teenagers, a ghetto girl and a country boy, in the inner city section
of Kingston, Jamaica. “Our lives began in a government yard in Trench Town,
with hopes of reaching the world through music and through dreams.” The story will include how they met and the
music they made, and falling in love and making a family. “Every inch of me is in there,” she added, “I
don’t want a fairy tale or Cinderella story.”
There is no definite work on who will portray Bob
Marley. Rita would like two actors, one
to portray the young adult arriving from the rural Nine Mile, and one older to
portray the Tuff Gong as he rose to super stardom. Besides lobbying for Lauryn Hill, Rita Marley
has also suggested casting her grandson, Stephen's son Stefan Marley, a “spitting image” she
says, to portray the teen-age Bob.
“It’s more than being a superstar,” Rita said, “it’s more
than just a story – it’s a reality.”
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