'Bob Marley: One Love' movie opens on Valentine's Day; VIP red carpet premiere in Wilmington

One of Wilmington's most famous one-time residents is about to get the Hollywood treatment.

But will Bob Marley's time in Delaware make the final cut in Paramount Pictures' biopic "Bob Marley: One Love" when it is released in theaters on Valentine's Day? We'll have an answer soon.

It's been 60 years since an 18-year-old Marley moved from Jamaica to Wilmington with his mother, Cedella Booker, living in (or visiting) the city on and off through 1977, according to the Bob Marley Foundation.

Booker had married Edward Booker, whom she met in Delaware while visiting her sister following the death of Marley's father, Norval, in 1955.

Marley lived with his mother and stepfather at 2313 Tatnall St., with the reggae star later purchasing the home next door at 2311 Tatnall St., working a short stint as a lab assistant at DuPont and later driving a forklift at the former Chrysler plant in Newark.

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If it sounds like a recipe for culture shock, you'd be right.

"He was here about a year and the only time I really saw him happy was when he knew he was going back to Jamaica," Cedella Booker told The News Journal in an interview in 1976. "He didn't go out. He would say he preferred to stay here.

"He had a little book and he would write the words that came to his mind, then take his guitar and pick out a tune until he had something."

'One Love' co-writer also from Wilmington

"Bob Marley: One Love" stars English actor Kingsley Ben-Adir ("One Night in Miami...," "Secret Invasion," "Peaky Blinder") as Marley, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, who helmed Academy Award Best Picture nominee "King Richard" in 2021.

It was written by Green, Terence Winter ("Boardwalk Empire," "The Sopranos"), Frank E. Flowers and ― in a local twist ― Zach Baylin, a Tatnall School graduate who grew up in Wilmington's Highlands neighborhood and whose writing credits include "King Richard," "Creed III," "Gran Turismo" and the upcoming reinvention of "The Crow."

A major feature film about a music legend with Wilmington ties and co-written by a Wilmingtonian deserves a Wilmington premiere. The organizers behind the annual Peoples Festival in Wilmington honoring Marley — first launched in 1994 by the late Ibis Pitts and his wife, Genoveva "Genny,” who still heads the event — will host such a premiere.

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Booker would say her son's only friend in Wilmington was Ibis, according to Genny. Marley first met him around 1968. Ibis owned an Afrocentric shop at 24th and Market streets, and Marley's wife, Rita, came in one day, barefoot.

She told Ibis about her musician husband and the two hit it off when they met, often getting together to play music with Marley on guitar and Ibis on drums with Marley eventually becoming a fixture at the shop for a bit.

The Wailers' Junior Marvin coming for Wilmington premiere

Genny Pitts and Peoples Festival will host a VIP red carpet premiere event at Penn Cinema Riverfront 14 + IMAX (401 S. Madison St., Wilmington) on Feb. 14 at 7 p.m.

Junior Marvin, guitarist with Marley's band The Wailers, will attend as a special guest with a meet and greet ahead of the screening and a question-and-answer session afterward. Marvin's new album, "Happy Family," will be released Feb. 23.

The premiere is hosted by Pitts' daughter Chandra, executive director of Wilmington's One Village Alliance, and Iz Balleto, Delaware Art Museum community engagement specialist and co-founder of the Wilmington Guerilla Republik community organization.

It costs $30 to attend and tickets are available at peoplesfestival.com.

Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at [email protected] or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and X (@ryancormier).

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This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: 'Bob Marley: One Love' biopic opens on Valentine's Day