James Mangold is no stranger to the musical biopic, having brought Johnny Cash’s story to the big screen with Walk the Line, which got Joaquin Phoenix an Academy Award nomination for that film. Now, Mangold takes on another musical icon with the Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown. There has been a more abstract attempt at telling Dylan’s story with Todd Haynes’ 2007 film I’m Not There, which featured an all-star cast and multiple actors playing Bob Dylan in a different phase of his life with a unique interpretation, including Cate Blanchett sporting his iconic look. Searchlight Pictures has dropped the trailer for A Complete Unknown, which stars Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro. The film also co-stars Boyd Holbrook, Dan Fogler, Norbert Leo Butz and Scoot McNairy, with the studio also giving it a December 25th wide release. Given how well Chalamet’s Wonka did during the holiday season last year, the studio is likely hoping that lightning will strike twice. The date also gives is peak visibility during award season.
Here’s the official synopsis: “Set in the influential New York music scene of the early 60s, A Complete Unknown follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s (Timothée Chalamet) meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts – his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation – culminating in his groundbreaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.”
James Mangold directs from a screenplay written by him and Jay Cocks, who is known for working with Martin Scorsese on projects such as Gangs of New York and Silence. Producers on the film include Range’s Fred Berger, The Picture Company’s Alex Heineman, Veritas Entertainment Group’s Peter Jaysen, Bob Bookman, Alan Gasmer, Bob Dylan’s longtime representative Jeff Rosen, Chalamet, and Mangold via his Turnpike Films. Michael Bederman, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, and Andrew Rona are on board as executive producers.
Mangold recently talked about the setting of the film, saying, “It’s such an amazing time in American culture, and the story of Bob’s — a young, 19-year-old Bob Dylan coming to New York with two dollars in his pocket and becoming a worldwide sensation within three years…First being embraced into a family of folk music in New York and of course kind of outrunning him at a certain point as his star rises so beyond belief.”