JOIN OUR WHATSAPP CHANNEL
Why Timothee Chalamet Was Not the First Choice for Bob Dylan's Biopic? Find Out
The trailer of A Complete Unknown was released last week on July 24 and is eyeing a December 2024 release just ahead of the awards season.
Timothee Chalamet is making his way to yet another awards race with his role as legendary musician Bob Dylan in his upcoming biopic A Complete Unknown. While he has been already winning hearts following the trailer release, however, he was reportedly not the first choice for the role.
While Chalamet has gone through a major transformation for the role and reportedly sought help from fellow Hollywood actors for the same, he was not the one Dylan had chosen for the role. Find out below who was the first choice for the roles and what the movie chronicles.
Who had Bob Dylan chosen to portray him in his biopic?
Not only is Dylan honored to have a biopic made on his life, but he is also alive to witness it on screen. Years ago, Dylan was asked who would he like to see portraying him on screen. According to Far Out Magazine, the songwriter was asked to think about who could play him in a biopic during a 2012 interview with Interview Magazine. Billy Dee Williams and Mickey Rooney were on Dylan's list of “a couple of actors I'd like to play me.”
Rooney was in his 90s when he was interviewed, and he passed away two years later. In the Star Wars saga, Williams is most recognized for his role as Lando Calrissian. Given that both seem like strange choices for Dylan in a biopic, fans speculate that he may have been simply joking.
About Bob Dylan’s biopic A Complete Unknown
Directed by James Mangold, A Complete Unknown is based on Elijah Wald’s 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric!. The film chronicles the controversy surrounding Bob Dylan's transition to electrically amplified equipment.
It follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan's 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 ground-breaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. The story is set in the influential New York music scene of the early 1960s.
The trailer for the film was released last week on July 24 and is eyeing a December 2024 release just ahead of the awards season.
James Mangold talks about Bob Dylan’s involvement in the film
In mid-2023, Mangold talked candidly about A Complete Unknown during their conversation for an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. The filmmaker revealed that Dylan has provided advice on the writing and has been a huge supporter of the movie. The License to Kill singer is deeply involved in the biopic since, in Mangold's opinion, it is not your typical “cradle to grave” movie.
Rather, it centers on a very particular period of Dylan's life when, at the age of 17, he hitched his way to New York, barely having sixteen dollars to his name. The whole purpose of all of this was to get young Dylan to meet singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie. Mangold's choice to film the earliest moments of his career seemed to be ideal for a flawless biopic.
ALSO READ: Where Are Timothée Chalamet And Elle Fanning Shooting Bob Dylan's Biopic, A Complete Unknown?
Latest Articles
