Unlike the family of rock god Jimi Hendrix, the massive clan of reggae icon Bob Marley has always seemed to move in lockstep in managing their father's legacy.

That stability appears shaky at the moment, as two entities working on film projects about Marley are at loggerheads over the right to use Marley's music in the films.

Marley's family has refused to license any of his music for an upcoming Weinstein Co. biopic about Marley, despite the fact that the film is based on the memoir of Marley's widow, Rita Marley, who is also serving as its executive producer.

The family's decision was based on the fact that it had already granted the music rights to Marley-family-owned Tuff Gong Pictures and Steven Bing's Shangri La, which are producing a Marley documentary that is being directed by Martin Scorsese.

"Martin Scorsese doesn't want to go out with a competing project," Chris Blackwell, president of Blue Mountain Music, Marley's music publisher, told the Hollywood Reporter. "The Weinstein project has put the documentary into jeopardy."

Rita Marley was apparently outvoted by the rest of the Marley family in granting the biopic the music rights.

"When I sold the film rights to my book, the contract did not include any rights to use my husband's music," she said. "Though I am the head of the Marley family, each decision is made democratically amongst all of us. I requested an exception be made for my book to be turned into a movie but that request was declined."

The family members involved in the Scorsese documentary say they were unaware that the Weinstein project would be unveiled so soon and believe that its projected late-2009 release date would interfere with their film's February 2010 opening, which is timed to coincide with what would have been Marley's 65th birthday.

"All our efforts and support are currently directed toward the documentary," Marley's eldest son, Ziggy Marley, who is executive producer of the untitled Scorsese film, told the Reporter. "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."

Blackwell said he'd like to see the Weinstein biopic delayed until at least 2015 to avoid the two projects colliding. He said he talked with Harvey Weinstein on March 13 about the issue, but so far nothing has been resolved.

Blackwell told the Reporter that he expects a deal to be reached soon whereby the Weinstein Co. would take a stake in the Scorsese documentary and agree to postpone its drama.