In the span of three months, Timothée Chalamet has appeared as both a velvet-clad Willy Wonka in a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory prequel and the intergalactic aristo Paul Atreides in the second installment of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune franchise. But it’s his forthcoming outing in James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic that has “Oscar frontrunner” written all over it. Tentatively titled A Complete Unknown, the Ford v Ferrari auteur’s latest project has officially begun filming in New York. (This has all been a long time coming: As far back as in 2020, Chalamet could be seen toting his Gibson back and forth to guitar rehearsals in preparation.)
According to Mangold, the Haider Ackermann poster boy will also be singing Dylan’s songs while embodying the “Subterranean Homesick Blues” musician—and he’s looked to his Dune co-star Austin Butler for help nailing Dylan’s distinctive sound. “I’ve basically been working with his entire Elvis team for my Dylan prep,” Chalamet told GQ last year. “There’s a wonderful dialect coach named Tim Monich. Vocal coach named Eric Vetro. Movement coach named Polly Bennett. I just saw the way [Butler] committed to it all—and realized I needed to step it up.”
“It’s such an amazing time in American culture and the story of… a young 19-year-old Bob Dylan coming to New York with like two dollars in his pocket and becoming a worldwide sensation within three years,” Mangold told Collider of A Complete Unknown’s early-’60s timeframe during a red-carpet interview in April 2023. “First being embraced into the family of folk music in New York, and kind of outrunning them at a certain point as his star rises so beyond belief.” Among the other folk artists represented in the biopic? Johnny Cash (played by Boyd Holbrook), Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), and Pete Seeger (Edward Norton). Elle Fanning also joined the film last year as Sylvie Russo, an artist and early love interest of Dylan’s.
According to Deadline, the movie will also home in on Dylan’s controversial pivot towards rock ‘n’ roll with his 1965 album, Bringing It All Back Home, on which he played electric guitar for the first time. Fans’ reactions in the immediate aftermath of its release were notably intense. Not only was Dylan heckled onstage at the Newport Folk Festival that year, but in 1966, an audience member at a Manchester gig screamed out “Judas!” as he played, generating a frenzy of media coverage. Happily, something tells us Chalamet’s own performance will be met with nothing but adulation.
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