Bob Marley Makes Sacrifices for the Greater Good in ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ Biopic Trailer

The first trailer for the forthcoming biopic Bob Marley: One Love doesn’t trace the Jamaican icon back to his earliest beginnings but rather to the origin of his ethos. “My life is not important to me,” actor Kingsley Ben-Adir’s Marley selflessly states in the clip. “My life is for people.” In theaters Jan. 12, the Reinaldo Marcus Green-directed film adds context to the pain and joy in the musician’s life that informed his desire for ultimate unification.

“Nothing happens before it’s time, and now is the time for the story of our father Bob Marley to be represented in a biopic theatrical release coming in 2024,” Marley’s son Ziggy Marley wrote on Instagram ahead of the trailer’s release. “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.”

In the trailer, one of those moments includes an intense shootout at his home in Jamaica where both Marley and his wife, Rita Marley (prorated in the film by Lashana Lynch), were targeted. “Bob, they tried to kill you and your wife,” a man tells him. “And now you’re choosing to return to Jamaica to play a peace concert? Don’t you fear for your life?” But for him, the fear didn’t outweigh the greater good.

“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,” Ziggy continued in his post. “With this release we look forward to inspiring not only the long time fans but also the younger generation, giving them a vehicle that opens the door to explore Bob’s life and music and in so doing expand his universal message of unification, justice and peace throughout the earth.”

Ziggy serves as a producer on the Paramount Pictures film alongside his sister Cedella Marley as well as his mother, Rita. The film’s other producers include Robert Teitel, Brad Pitt, Jeremy Kleiner, and Dede Gardner. James Norton, Tosin Cole, Anthony Welsh, Michael Gandolfini, Umi Myers, and Nadine Marshall star alongside Ben-Adir and Lynch.