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? Filming has officially begun, with new 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. Deadline recently also reported a slew of other additions, including Boyd Holbrook, 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.
When is it coming out?
We know that filming is underway, but the release date for A Complete Unknown is still a complete unknown.
This post has been updated.
