The first trailer for A Complete Unknown shows Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in the much-anticipated biopic.
The Dune and Call Me by Your Name star has transformed into the legendary musician for an awards-aiming drama to be released in the US in December and in the UK in January. It comes from the film-maker James Mangold, who previously directed the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line.
It starts in New York City when Dylan arrives in 1961 and ends 72 hours after the Newport folk festival in 1965.
The film will include the actors singing, with the Top Gun: Maverick star Monica Barbaro playing Joan Baez, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger and Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash. Elle Fanning also stars as Suze Rotolo, the artist who had a major influence on Dylan during that period. Mangold has called it “a strong ensemble piece”.
“I’m much more interested in the wake that this person has left on others, as much as I’m interested in unpacking who he is in some kind of conventional movie-Freudian way,” Mangold said to Rolling Stone.
Chalamet reportedly used his Dune: Part Two co-star Austin Butler’s “entire Elvis team” to help transform himself. “I just saw the way [Butler] committed to it all – and realised I needed to step it up,” Chalamet said to GQ.
His vocal coach, Eric Vetro, who also worked with him on last year’s hit musical Wonka, has called what he brings to the table the “essence” of Dylan. “You’re not getting an impersonation of him,” he said. “It’s breathing new life into that voice that we know so well.”
Mangold also said of Chalamet’s performance: “It’s going to be impossible for people in trailers or teasers or photos to see, but the way he grows this character is a real act of acting brilliance in my opinion.”
Dylan was previously brought to life on screen by actors including Cate Blanchett and Heath Ledger in Todd Haynes’s unconventional 2007 drama I’m Not There.
Chalamet is coming off the back of the $711m box office success of Dune: Part Two and has recently signed on to play – the ping-pong player Marty Reisman in Marty Supreme, a film to be directed by Josh Safdie.
A Complete Unknown, to be released in prime Oscar release territory, launches Chalamet into the best actor race alongside other predicted contenders such as Daniel Craig in Queer, Colman Domingo in Sing Sing and Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie à Deux.