The first trailer for Paramount Pictures’ highly anticipated Bob Marley biopic, Bob Marley: One Love, has been released.
The film, which stars British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir as Bob Marley and Lashana Lynch as Rita Marley, is expected to make its theatrical debut on Friday, January 12, 2024.
The trailer serves up an enchanting preview of the biopic, which has been, according to producer Ziggy Marley, “four or five years in the making”. It opens with an aerial shot of a massive crowd clamoring for the Reggae legend, before an instantaneous pan takes the viewer to a much calmer scene backstage with I-Threes member Rita and The Wailers.
“How yuh waan’ start it?” Bob is asked by a bandmate, to which Ben-Adir offers up a convincingly mellow, easy-going Marley-esque response: “From di beginning.” The trailer then cascades into waves of highlights from Bob Marley’s life, showcasing pivotal moments in his legendary career.
Director Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard) confirmed that the film will primarily cover the periods 1976 to 1978, which will include the infamous attempted assassination of Bob Marley and wife Rita, the making of his iconic Exodus album, and his eventual return to Jamaica for the historic One Love Peace Concert.
Marcus Green reasoned that: “You really need to understand that period of time to understand Bob the man, and what he was going through spiritually and emotionally as a father, as a husband, and as a musician.”
He continued: “From the very beginning, we were not interested in doing sort of a cradle-to-grave story. We didn’t feel like we needed to do that, to capture the essence of what Bob was going through at that time. This is a very rich period of Bob’s life in terms of his maturation process, of his becoming a man, of his leaving a legacy to the world. And I think it’s important to know that particular period of time.”
Ziggy, who is joined by his sister Cedella Marley and mother, Rita Marley, as producers on the film, shares that distinction with co-producers Brad Pitt, Robert Teitel, Jeremy Kleiner and Dede Gardner. The film will be executive-produced Orly Marley, Richard Hewitt and Matt Solodky.
According to Ziggy, this latest attempt to capture the life and legend of his father has been a deliberate and long-running process. He explained to Shadow and Act that, “… Since I was a little boy, I think many have been trying to make this movie.”
He added that since the biopic’s inception, they have been working with Paramount Pictures to ensure the best representation possible. “We’ve been on it from the beginning of the discussion with Paramount [Pictures] to find great writers and stuff like that,” he explained.
While concerns about authenticity flooded the film’s production since it was announced that Ben-Adir would be playing the Jamaican icon, Ziggy moved to vouch for the British actor, telling the online publication that Ben-Adir “did a great job.”
“He was very adamant about being emotionally aware of what Bob was going through,” Ziggy explained of the One Night In Miami actor. “We know that we can never replace Bob, so don’t expect that.”
pic by Dancehallmag
He further added that Ben-Adir tapped deeply into the spirit and essence of his father. “There’s an emotional thing that Bob was going through that Kingsley was able to capture and understand for himself even help us to go into the direction that he wanted to go. He was adamant about creating not just the superficial Bob Marley, but a deeper emotional Bob Marley for the people to experience in this film.”
It was also revealed by director Marcus Green that Ben-Adir lost weight for the role, learned to play the guitar, learned to sing, and learned the Jamaican dialect. “We were looking for the best actor for the role, and we found that in Kingsley Ben-Adir from his very first audition tape–and we went through several hundred. It was a lot. We scoured every island in the Caribbean that we could. And when I saw that tape, I know Ziggy and I, we looked at each other and were like, ‘The foundation is there.’ He just had he had the ability to tap into the essence.”
As for the show’s other central figure, Rita Marley, Lashana Lynch has apparently pulled out all the stops to deliver a most convincing portrayal, so much so that Ziggy has described her performance as “powerful”.
The movie was filmed in the UK and in Jamaica and is reported to have a predominantly Jamaican cast working behind the scenes and on camera.
