Bob Dylan “personally annotated” script for Timothée Chalamet-starring biopic
Following reports that Timothée Chalamet was attached to a new biopic on the life of Bob Dylan, it has been reported that the 82-year-old singer-songwriter has personally annotated the script. The exciting project is being helmed by director James Mangold, who looks to make the most concise Dylan biopic to date.
Many documentaries and movies have touched upon Dylan’s extraordinary life, including Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed Rolling Thunder Revue, a semi-fictionalised chronicle of mid-1970s America under the light of Dylan’s concurrent musical contributions. However, Mangold looks to bring an unfettered biography in his forthcoming movie, A Complete Unknown.
During a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Mangold discussed the new project. When asked whether Dylan had any involvement in the production, the director revealed that the legendary songwriter had “personally annotated” the script and that he and Dylan had spent some time together to plan the movie.
In A Complete Unknown, Timothée Chalamet will star as Dylan. The script is said to be ready, and filming is set to commence in August, according to Mangold’s comments back in April. At around the same time, the director revealed that Chalamet would contribute his own vocals to the movie’s musical moments.
In the podcast episode, Mangold also revealed that the movie will not be a “typical biopic”, as it will cover “a very specific moment” in the 1960s instead of documenting Dylan’s entire life.
“It’s a kind of ensemble piece about this moment in time, the early ’60s in New York, and this 17-year-old kid with $16 in his pockets hitchhikes his way to New York to meet Woody Guthrie who is in the hospital and is dying of a nerve disease,” Mangold explained.
“And he sings Woody a song that he wrote for him and befriends Pete Seeger, who is like a son to Woody. And Pete sets him up with gigs at local clubs, and there you meet Joan Baez and all these other people who are part of this world, and this wanderer who comes in from Minnesota with a fresh name and a fresh outlook on life, becomes a star, signs to the biggest record company in the world within a year, and three years later, has record sales rivalling the Beatles.”
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