Look out Hollywood, here comes Ziggy Marley.
The eldest child of reggae icon Robert Nesta ‘Bob’ Marley, the Grammy Award winning artiste is best known as singer/song-writer/producer, but now Ziggy ia about to add movie producer and possible actor to his resumé.
Ziggy, whose 2009 album, Family Time, took home the Grammy in the Children’s Album category, told the Observer in a recent interview that he was busy working on a movie.
“We are developing a story that we will be tweaking into a script,” he disclosed, sounding very excited and a bit cagey about the project.
Not willing to say much more about that particular project, Ziggy also briefly mentioned his newest recordings.
“I am recording around a particular theme which I can’t talk about right now,” he said, smiling through the phone.
“It might stir up a bit of controversy,” said the eldest Marley sibling, the clan to whom controversy is no stranger.
For example, there was quite a bit of brouhaha when his mother Rita, while promoting her book, No Woman, No Cry, told a newspaper in Britain that her husband, reggae legend Bob Marley, had raped her. And, more recently, his brother Ky-mani (not the son of Rita) was embroiled in controversy over his tell-all book in which he claimed that he was deprived of his father’s fortune for years, unlike his half-brothers and half-sisters.
Ziggy, who has plans to be in South Africa for the upcoming World Cup, says he will record with Angelique Kidjo, along with other African artistes, while there.
“Africa is very special to me and I will be going there with the Africa Unite slogan and banner as the backdrop,” he said.
Africa Unite is a series of benefit concerts, symposia, fund raisers and events to encourage peace, education and empowerment for youth in Africa, while reinforcing the significance of Bob Marley’s Songs of Freedom to manifest change throughout the world. Africa Unite has already been staged in Ethiopia, Ghana and South Africa, with the goal of re-uniting Africa.
“My role,” Ziggy explained, “is to play a part in promoting African unity and the World Cup platform is an ideal place to continue this journey.”
The 2010 FIFA World Cup, the premier international football tournament, is scheduled to take place between June 11 and July 11 in South Africa.