Timothée Chalamet is currently at work on James Mangold’s latest music biopic, A Complete Unknown. The film is adapted from Elijah Wald’s book Dylan Goes Electric! and depicts the moment in Bob Dylan’s career when the young folk singer switched from acoustic to electric guitars.
Mangold has previously had success with music biopics with Walk the Line, so there’s a lot of hype building around A Complete Unknown, and Chalamet’s performance potential as a young Bob Dylan. Based on the latest set photos, he certainly looks the part.
Ed Norton was also on set, he’s playing Pete Seeger. The cast is stacked top to bottom, with Top Gun: Maverick breakout Monica Barbaro playing Joan Baez; Elle Fanning starring as Sylvie Russo/Suze Rotolo, Dylan’s girlfriend and inspiration at the time; Dan Fogler as Albert Grossman, Dylan’s manager with whom Dylan had a complicated relationship; Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash (!!!); and Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie, which is LEGENDARY casting. Honestly, Woody deserves his own film, but Scoot McNairy, one of the most chameleonic and precise character actors working, is a BRILLIANT choice to play him.
Thanks to the success of Elvis, we’re in for a round of music biopics about “classic” rockers, which I put in quotes because it’s hard to think of people who are still recording and touring as “classic” but also Willie Nelson is ninety-one, some of these guys have been knocking around for the better part of an actual century. Besides Timmy and Bob, we’re probably going to get Jeremy Allen White in a biopic of Bruce Springsteen, and I am out here DEMANDING to know when we get either 1) a Stevie Nicks biopic, 2) a Willie Nelson biopic, or 3) an Eagles meltdown movie.
Have you seen the documentary History of The Eagles? It’s Last Dance good. Like you know those guys hate each other, but you don’t KNOW those guys hate each other, until you hear them talk about one another. It’s hilarious. Documentary Now! perfectly lampooned it with “Gentle and Soft: The Story of the Blue Jean Committee”, but you should still watch the documentary just for all the petty sh-t that gets talked. You can rent it on Prime, Apple, etc. Anyway, take a look at Timmy-Bob on set, and start anticipating his inevitable Oscar run next year.
