Searchlight Pictures has set a Christmas Day release for Timothée Chalamet playing iconic singer Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s biopic A Complete Unknown.
The film will hit theaters on Dec. 25 and also stars Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Dan Fogler as Albert Grossman, P.J. Byrne as Harold Leventhal, Norbert Leo Butz as Alan Lomax, Will Harrison as Bob Neuwirth and Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie.
Chalamet will do his own singing for the role after earlier musical work along with his onscreen performance in Wonka.
The synopsis for A Complete Unknown reads: “New York, early 1960s. Against the backdrop of a vibrant music scene and tumultuous cultural upheaval, an enigmatic 19-year-old from Minnesota arrives in the West Village with his guitar and revolutionary talent, destined to change the course of American music. As he forms his most intimate relationships during his rise to fame, he grows restless with the folk movement and, refusing to be defined, makes a controversial choice that culturally reverberates worldwide.”
Mangold, who directed the biopic based on a script he co-wrote with Jay Cocks, previously explained his motivation for telling Dylan’s story.
“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, $2 in his pocket and becoming a worldwide sensation within three years — first being embraced into the family of folk music in New York and then, of course, kind of outrunning them at a certain point as his star rises so beyond belief,” Mangold said of the upcoming film.
Searchlight Pictures earlier released a trailer for the biopic with Chalamet performing Dylan’s classic “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” amid shots of the singer’s life and career.
A Complete Unknown is produced by Fred Berger, Alex Heineman, Peter Jaysen, Bob Bookman, Alan Gasmer, Jeff Rosen, Chalamet and Mangold.
