Scorsese Out, Jonathan Demme in as Director of Marley Documentary

Martin Scorsese has had to move out of the director's chair on the upcoming family-authorized Bob Marley documentary, and he's handing the baton to another Oscar-winning director who has experience working in non-fiction film. Jonathan Demme, who has in the past couple of years directed documentaries about Jimmy Carter and Neil Young, will take over for Scorsese, according to Variety. Marty drops out for scheduling reasons, and despite the fact that he made the quintessential concert film (The Last Waltz), this move does not indicate a serious drop-off even though it's easy to see why teaming Marley's legend with a director of Scorsese's talents would be exciting. Demme's rock n' roll history goes back nearly as far as Scorsese's ,however; he helmed Stop Making Sense, a very good concert flick featuring Talking Heads, as well as the Robyn Hitchcock performance movie, Storefront Hitchcock, plus a smattering of music videos along the way. Said Demme in a statement, "I am thrilled and humbled by this extraordinary opportunity to participate in fashioning a motion picture that can serve as a worthy vessel for the spiritual and musical brilliance of Bob Marley." The release of the film is set to align with what would have been Marley's 65th birthday, February 6, 2010.