The family of the late great Bob Marley is refusing to license any of the reggae legend's music for a biopic - because they want to use the music in a competing documentary.

A movie adaptation of Marley's widow Rita's book No Woman, No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley is currently being created by The Weinstein Company, but the star's family will not co-operate for the project.

Instead, the family is handing over the rights to use his hits to director Martin Scorsese, who is making a documentary about the singer together with the Marley-owned Tuff Gong Pictures, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The family members involved in the Scorsese project claim they were unaware the Weinstein biopic would be unveiled so soon and believe that its projected late-2009 release date would interfere with the documentary's February 2010 release - timed to coincide with Marley's birthday.

The documentary's executive producer and Bob's son, Ziggy Marley, says, "The Weinstein project has put the documentary into jeopardy. All our efforts and support are currently directed toward the documentary.

"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." The Marley family's lawyer Terri Dipalo denied the latest move is a negotiating tactic to compel the Weinsteins to buy Marley music rights.