Audiences get a look at Timothée Chalamet playing Bob Dylan in the new trailer for the upcoming biopic, A Complete Unknown. Out in December 2024 (exact date not yet confirmed), the James Mangold (Walk The Line)-directed film follows the singer-songwriter as he arrives in New York City as a destitute hitchhiker in 1961 and ascends to the height of stardom over the next few years.
The trailer opens with an introduction by Pete Seeger (Ed Norton) as Dylan (Chalamet) wanders the streets of New York City past landmarks the Hotel Chelsea and Cafe Wha? which served as his early proving ground. Beyond seeing Chalamet’s downturned look and era-specific clothing, audiences also hear the Dune and Wonka star imitate Dylan’s iconic nasally drone as he sings “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”. Alongside Chalamet and Norton, A Complete Unknown stars Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, and Nick Offerman as Alan Lomax.
Though music biopics are a dime a dozen these days—this year has already seen films depicting the lives of Bob Marley and Amy Winehouse—A Complete Unknown has some significant advantages. First, there is the star power of it-boy Chalamet in the leading role (which attracts genuine interest and rage-clicks alike) and rock-solid two-time Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Ed Norton. Second, there’s the venerable director, James Mangold, who helmed one of the genre’s modern classics and received notes on the script from Dylan himself.
“The reason Bob has been so supportive of us making it, is it’s about, as in all cases I think of the best true-life movies, are never cradle to grave, but they’re about a very specific moment,” Mangold told IndieWire. “In this case, it might sound Altman-esque, but 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.
“And he sings Woody a song that he wrote for him and befriends Pete Seeger, who is like a son to Woody,” he added, “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 rivaling The Beatles.”
Check out the trailer for the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown starring Timothée Chalamet. For folks who want to see the real thing, Dylan is on the road this summer with Willie Nelson‘s traveling Outlaw Music Festival tour where he’s been regularly covering the Grateful Dead. Find tickets and a full list of tour dates on Dylan’s website.
A Complete Unknown | Teaser