Bob Dylan film A Complete Unknown is to be released on Christmas Day.
The film, featuring Dune star Timothee Chalamet as the influential folk singer, follows Dylan’s early days in the 1960s, culminating in his controversial performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, after he had gone electric.
In a post announcing the release date, the film’s producers Searchlight Pictures said: “A glimpse of the future.
“A Complete Unknown, a film by James Mangold, starring Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan, coming only to theatres December 25.”
A glimpse of the future. A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, a film by James Mangold, starring Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, coming only to theaters December 25th. #ACompleteUnknown pic.twitter.com/zjcX4t7YHQ
— Searchlight Pictures (@searchlightpics) August 6, 2024
A trailer for the film sees the 28-year-old actor wearing Dylan-style clothing and singing A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.
The teaser begins with glimpses of Chalamet, with curly brown hair and dark glasses, walking the streets of what appears to be New York City, where Dylan’s career took off.
Fight Club actor Edward Norton – as fellow folk singer Pete Seeger – introduces a young Dylan to a small crowd in a venue.
He says: “I want to tell you a little story. A few months back my friend Woody Guthrie and I, we met a young man, he dropped in on us out of nowhere, and he played us a song. In that moment we got a feeling we were getting a glimpse of the future.”
Chalamet then appears performing as Dylan, with the clip interspersed with footage of him at a church venue, where he looks at The Great actress Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, a character based on Suze Rotolo, an artist who was Dylan’s girlfriend in the early 1960s.
Maverick actress Monica Barbaro co-stars as folk singer and counter-culture figure Joan Baez, who performed with Dylan on duets such as With God On Our Side.
The movie is directed by James Mangold, who also helmed acclaimed Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, which was nominated for five Oscars, winning one for best actress for Witherspoon.
Dylan, 83, is to return to the UK to play the Royal Albert Hall in November as part of his Rough And Rowdy Ways tour, which will also see him perform in Wolverhampton, Nottingham and Liverpool.
He is one of the most acclaimed songwriters of all time, winning 10 Grammys and being nominated another 38 times. He has had six top 10 singles and nine number one albums in the UK.
He began his career in 1962 with the single Mixed-Up Confusion, which failed to chart in the UK or the US.
But he shot to stardom with a string of singles in 1965, including The Times They Are A-Changin’, Subterranean Homesick Blues and Like A Rolling Stone.
Dylan’s songs have been covered by the likes of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Rolling Stones and Adele.
