The first ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ trailer is taking us back to the 70’s
After an international search to find the actor who could fill the boots of the world’s greatest reggae legends, we now have the first look at Kingsley Ben-Adir as Bob Marley in the One Love biopic. The Paramount trailer starts at the beginning of Marley’s journey as an artist when he coined his peace-making message and began to spread his ethos to the masses.
The insight details a journey through his time on the stage, swerving between his ‘78 Jamaica One Love Peace Concert and his tours, building to the failed assassination attempt on him in 1976. In a never before seen picture of Marley’s life, Ben-Adir flashes onto the screen as the trailer begins, ringing a nearly indifferentiable similarity. The actor learned to play guitar, especially for the film, saying “Reggae’s a people music, it’s people coming together.” The shots flit between studio time, family and friends of the singer, and his time spent with the people of Jamaica.
As the feel-good music stops, we see the moment Marley and his family become victim to an attempt on his life, when seven armed men raided his famous ‘utopia’ safe house on Hope Road. Happening just before the Smile Jamaica Concert, the attack took place in a time of political division for Jamaica, with the People’s National Party moving their election to coincide with the neutral concert, leaving Marley a victim of his own cultural gravitas.
“My life is not important to me. My life is people,” says Ben-Adir in the trailer. The end shows the artist rebuilding his life, with emotional moments of revisiting the place he and his wife, played by The Woman King’s Lashana Lynch, was shot but survived.
The biopic is directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, best known for the 2021 film King Richard following tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams’ rise to the top. Marley’s own son Ziggy, his daughter Cedella and his wife Rita oversaw the entire film production, with the help of Brad Pitt, Robert Teitel, Jeremy Kleiner, and Dede Garner. On an Instagram post to promote the film, Ziggy wrote: “You’ve heard the music and you think you know the man but do you really understand what he went through and what moments shaped him into the person he became.”
It continues to say “Authenticity fills the screen with numerous Jamaican actors doing us proud in representing the culture. Filmed at the actual places where Bob walked, played football, and sang like Trench Town and Bull Bay in Kingston, it is an artistic creation that we are proud of and want you to enjoy to be entertained but also to be inspired. The family produced it with Paramount studio and for us, it represents the continuation of Bob’s message and growth.”
The film will grace cinema screens on the 12th of January 2024.
