Bob Marley Biopic Release Date Announced

Paramount Pictures has announced that their untitled Bob Marley biopic is set for release on January 12, 2024.

We reported last month that after an extensive search, the film studio and Tuff Gong selected the British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir to play the Reggae legend.

Despite Ben-Adir’s Caribbean roots and biracial heritage, many Marley fans expressed opposition to the choice of a non-native Jamaican for the role. This included Marley’s son and actor Ky-Mani Marley, who asserted that one of his father’s children or grandchildren would have been a better pick.

Ben-Adir has previously played Malcolm X in Amazon Studios’ One Night in Miami and President Barack Obama on Showtime’s The Comey Rule.  From 2017 to 2019, he appeared in series four and five of the BBC One television series Peaky Blinders. 

The yet-to-be-named Paramount film will be directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, whose biographical drama King Richard has been hailed as a critical and commercial success.  Released last November, King Richard is based on the inspirational true story of Richard Williams, and surrounds the early life of his daughters, future tennis superstars Venus and Serena. The film, which earned six Oscar nods, has been called “one of the best films of the year,” and Green’s treatment of Reggae royalty is expected to be just as compelling.

King Richards’ screenwriter Zach Baylin will be writing the script for the Marley biopic.

Ziggy Marley, Rita and Cedella Marley, will act as producers on behalf of Tuff Gong. Robert Teitel will also co-produce.

Specific details about the movie’s plot, have not yet been officially disclosed, however Marcus Green revealed that it will be about the making of Exodus.

Featuring gems like Jammin and Waiting In Vain, Marley’s seminal album not only made him a megastar in the UK but coincided with his exile there, after an assassination attempt in Jamaica.

Recorded in London, Exodus was released in June 1977, when Marley was 32 years old.