ARTS-ENTERTAINMENT – 4.

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Howard Campbell

KINGSTON, Nov 17 1998 (IPS) - Fans of reggae icon Bob Marley are singing the blues after a recent announcement that the much- heralded movie on his life has been put on hold.

Work on the project was scheduled to begin in 1999, but a disagreement between the director and the producers has left the film in limbo. Differences between administrators at Warner Brothers and director Ron Shelton over the size of the movie’s budget has halted any immediate plans for the movie and sources close to the project are uncertain when when production will ever start.

“It’s on indefinite hold, that’s the formal term they used,” said Marley historian Roger Steffens, who had a consulant’s role for the film. “Ron Shelton can’t make the movie he sees in his head for less than a major league budget, and Warner Brothers will not come up with the amount required.”

Shelton’s initial budget of 60 million dollars reportedly was turned down by Warners, so too was the revised budget of 42 million dollars. Warner Brothers reportedly was prepared to spend 30 million dollars on the film but this did not satisfy Shelton.

Warner Brothers’ position stemmed from the fact that the Hollywood giant’s most recent releases have not fared well at the box office. The studio had high expectations for films like “The Avengers” starring Ray Fiennes and Uma Thurman, but that bombed and closed within days of its release.

With that in mind, the studio clamped down on finances for the highly-anticipated Marley flick, despite the excitment around the project which has dragged on for last five months.

Steffens, who had been part of plans since the project’s embryonic stages, is among those disappointed that the film is in danger of never being screened.

“This is the best script I’ve seen from eight different writers and we were in the final stages of pre-production,” stated Steffens. It’s very disappointing…as we were very close to production.”

According to Steffens, the latest developments have forced Shelton and company to close their various casting offices around the world.

After years of rumors that Marley would rise again on the Hollywood screen, the film seemed well on the way to reality when casting sessions were held in Kingston, New York and Los Angeles to find actors to fill the roles of Marley and his inner circle.

The Kingston casting session drew mass response with hundreds of candidates answering the call for prospective roles. The failure to find a suitable actor to play the lead part, it is understood, was another stumbling block for producers.

Shelton and his staff were reportedly looking for a young musician type who could play a 19-year span: from a 17 year-old Marley to age 36, the reggae king’s age at the time of his death in 1981.

While the Marley Foundation remained quiet, Marley’s former manager Don Taylor had an interesting take on the latest turn of events. “I don’t think it has anything to do with a budget,” he said. “Personally, I think the script was weak; Warner Brothers would not have gone this far and not known the extent of their budget.”

Taylor disclosed that he met with Shelton when the director visited Jamaica recently, and told him that he was not prepared to be a part of a project that would not do justice to Marley’s memory.

“I told him I wanted nothing to do with a whitewash,” said Taylor, who added that a Marley film would be better suited for television. “It would reach a lot more people that way.”

Marley’s unique life has been the subject of much documentation, mostly biographies that have drawn mixed response. Billboard magazine editor Timothy White’s “Catch A Fire” book was said to be riddled with errors while Taylor’s tell-all “Marley And Me” ruffled quite a few feathers when it was released in 1994.

A movie, which would give an intimate insight into his rise from ghetto philosopher to the developing world’s superstar seemed the next logical step for the legend of a man whose records have sold in the millions since his death from cancer.

But all that seems a remote possibilty now. According to Roger Steffens, with neither Warner Brothers nor Shelton prepared to change their stance, the sight of Bob Marley on the silver screen remains a pipedream.

“Shelton refuses to compromise he wants to do the movie properly,” said Steffens. “Things just don’t seem very viable right now.”