James Mangold’s Bob Dylan musical biopic is now planned for December.
Timothée Chalamet is going from Barb to Bob. He’s starring as Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown, and was spotted filming the biopic in Manhattan this month. Finally, we can see the results of Chalamet’s extensive prep for the role, which apparently included jamming out to “like a 12-hour playlist” of unreleased Dylan songs. A Complete Unknown centers on the fateful Newport Music Festival during which Dylan went electric. The moment has been depicted previously in Todd Haynes’s I’m Not There. Also kinda in Factory Girl? But let Lil Timmy T sing you a little something anyway …
Ladies and gentlemen, the trailer.
Timothée Chalamet slips into the rock-star lifestyle and a pretty good vocal impression. Unlike some trailers of late, his live version of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” carries the story through glimpses of Dylan’s emotionally tumultuous rise to superstardom.
What do we know so far?
Filming wrapped by early July, with photos showing Chalamet on set standing by a car in sunglasses and reading on a bench.
Mangold previously slipped Deadline deets on the project at Cannes last May while promoting Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, with the director announcing that Benedict Cumberbatch would be playing folk legend Pete Seeger in the film. Seeger was on the ground floor of Dylan standom, supporting the singer before he got famous and inviting him to Newport in the first place. However, reportedly due to scheduling conflicts, Ed Norton ended up stepping in as replacement — and there are pictures of him strumming a banjo to prove it.
Who else is in the cast?
Joining Chalamet and Norton will be Top Gun: Maverick’s Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez and Elle Fanning as a fictionalized Dylan paramour of the early ’60s. Boyd Holbrook will do his best Johnny Cash, the director revealed in a new interview with Rolling Stone. Deadline also reported a slew of other additions, including Scoot McNairy, Dan Fogler, Will Harrison, Charlie Tahan, P.J. Byrne, Eli Brown, Nick Pupo, Big Bill Morganfield, Laura Kariuki, Eric Berryman, David Alan Basche, Joe Tippett, and James Austin Johnson. No character details were disclosed in this casting dump. Sadly for Chalamet, Austin Butler still isn’t onboard.
Is Timmy really singing live?
Yes, indeed! Mangold confirmed Chalamet and Barbaro recorded live takes as Dylan and Baez in an interview with Rolling Stone. “But it’s not [like] if one of our actors hit a bad note, I don’t have an alternative take or the ability to replace that one beat,” he said. “If Timmy’s brave enough to stand out there and make himself vulnerable, throwing himself at this, I should be brave enough to stand behind the camera and shoot.” Plus, multiple COVID-related production delays and false starts gave Chalamet and Barbaro time to hone their musical chops. “Timmy was a partner in this,” Mangold said. “He very much wanted to.”
When is it coming out?
The release date for A Complete Unknown is not a complete unknown. Mangold accelerated the postproduction schedules in the hopes that it will arrive onscreen this year around December.
— Mangold (@mang0ld) March 25, 2024
This post has been updated.
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