Photo Credit: Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown” / Searchlight Pictures
Bob Dylan praises Timothee Chalamet in his first public acknowledgement of the upcoming biopic about his early years as a folk music legend.
Bob Dylan is pleased about Timothee Chalamet’s role as the folk music legend in the upcoming biopic, “A Complete Unknown,” in which Chalamet stars as Dylan during his early years in New York in the 1960s. Dyan took to the former Twitter to encourage fans to see the film.
“There’s a movie about me opening soon called A Complete Unknown (what a title!) Timothee Chalamet is starring in the lead role. Timmy’s a brilliant actor so I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me,” wrote Dylan.
“The film’s taken from Elijah Wald’s Dylan Goes Electric — a book that came out in 2015. It’s a fantastic retelling of events from the early ‘60s that led up to the fiasco at Newport. After you’ve seen the movie read the book,” he concluded.
The following day, Chalamet responded, writing, “Floored. I am so grateful. Thank you Bob.”
Athough Dylan has been somewhat involved in the film’s making, as director James Mangold sat down with him multiple times and the legendary songwriter gave notes on the script, his social media post implies he has not yet seen “A Complete Unknown.” The film, which also lists Dylan’s manager Jeff Rosen as a producer, debuts on December 25.
“A Complete Unknown” follows a young Bob Dylan as he arrives in New York City in the early 1960s and becomes a fixture in the Greenwich Village folk scene. The film tracks his early rise as a musician up until he straps on an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 to play “Like a Rolling Stone,” a revolutionary moment for the genre.
The film is written by Mangold and Jay Cocks, based on Elijah Wald’s 2015 book “Dylan Goes Electric!” It also features Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie, and Elle Fanning as Dylan’s girlfriend Sylvie Russo, a fictional character based on his then-girlfriend Suze Rotolo.