A planned Bob Marley biopic based on a book by the musician’s widow Rita Marley, who is also executive producer, has been denied rights to use the legendary singer’s music by the Marley family.

Weinstein Co.’s project has hit one very serious bump on its way to fruition: Bob Marley’s family refuses to allow the company to use the legendary reggae musician’s songs in an upcoming drama based on “No Woman, No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley,” a book by Rita Marley. The widow is also executive producer but this has not softened the family’s determination.

A competing film is in the works as well, as Martin Scorsese intends to direct a yet-unnamed biopic on the Jamaican legend. The Scorsese documentary is being produced by Tuff Gong Pictures, owned by the Marley family, and Steven Bing’s Shangri-La, which has licensed Marley songs.

Marley’s family apparently favors the documentary they are producing, which is slated to open in February 2010 (the year marks Bob Marley’s 65th anniversary, had he lived; he was born on Feb. 6, 1945 and died in 1981).

The Weinstein Co. project has a tentative release date for late 2009, which the Marley family thinks clashes with their own film.

Marley’s son Ziggy released a statement saying, “We believe that this project is the best way to represent our father’s life from his perspective and any other film project pertaining to our father will be empty without his music to support it.”

Weinstein Co.’s spokesman Matthew Frankel told TMZ earlier this week: “We have great respect for the Marley family and... are in discussions to look at ways to mutually benefit both projects.”

Rita Marley’s book was published in 2004 by Hyperion and chronicles the couple’s eventful marriage. They wed in 1966, had four children and survived through an assassination attempt on the musician in 1976. Marley passed away in 1981, at the age of 36, from cancer.

Scorsese has previously made “No Direction Home,” a biopic on Bob Marley and the recent Rolling Stones concert film “Shine A Light,” which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in Germany on February 7.