Bob Dylan Asked James Mangold What His Bob Dylan Movie., A Complete Unknown, Is About

Bob Dylan himself asked director James Mangold what exactly his upcoming Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, is all about. But was he satisfied with the answer? The filmmaker disclosed details of his meeting with Dylan in a new interview with Rolling Stone, revealing what he said in response to the question, and how the real-life singer-songwriting icon felt about what he had to say…

“The first time I sat down with him. Bob said, ‘What’s this movie about, Jim?’ I said, ‘It’s about a guy who’s choking to death in Minnesota, and leaves behind all his friends and family and reinvents himself in a brand new place, makes new friends, builds a new family, becomes phenomenally successful, starts to choke to death again — and runs away.”

While Mangold was no doubt holding his breath in anticipation of what Dylan would say in response to his summing up of A Complete Unknown, thankfully for the director, the legendary musician sounded happy with the reply, saying…

A Complete Unknown does not yet have a specific release date, but the first trailer for the biopic made its debut yesterday, revealing our first look at Dune 2 star and Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan. The rest of the cast includes Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, Dan Fogler as Albert Grossman, Norbert Leo Butz as Alan Lomax, and Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie.

James Mangold Explains Why Timothée Chalamet Is the Perfect Actor to Play Bob Dylan

A Complete Unknown will feature the actors’ live performances (“That’s what we’ve done! Yeah.”), with Mangold going on to reveal what he thinks makes Timothée Chalamet the perfect Bob Dylan.

“I think what’s so wonderful about what Timmy is doing is that, while not answering questions about Bob, at the same time I think he does in a very poetic way, which is to suggest really empathically through his performance how one might want to make music, but one might not want to have people in your face all the time. And I think in a way, Bob answers that… Timmy, who I’m used to calling Bob sometimes, answers that question.”

While the idea of a more straightforward Bob Dylan biopic has long been contested (hence the wonderfully abstract approach by director Todd Haynes in 2007’s I’m Not There), James Mangold will attempt just that. However, rather than going over the entire life of the musician, he will instead center on the controversy that Dylan posed when adopting electrically amplified rock instrumentation. You can check out the newly released synopsis and trailer for A Complete Unknown below.

“Set in the influential New York music scene of the early 60s, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician BOB DYLAN’s (Timothée Chalamet) 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 groundbreaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.”