‘A Complete Unknown’: Everything We Know About Timothee Chalamet’s Bob Dylan Biopic

Timothée Chalamet becomes Bob Dylan in the new biopic A Complete Unknown. As the new trailer reveals, the Dune actor sang live and sounds astonishingly similar to the folk singer. Hollywood Life has rounded up everything you need to know about the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic, below!

‘A Complete Unknown’ Release Date

The Searchlight Pictures biopic is scheduled to hit theaters in December 2024.

Who Is in the Bob Dylan Biopic Cast?

Apart from Timmy, who plays Bob in the movie, the film is complete with a star-studded cast. Elle Fanning plays the role of Bob’s former girlfriend Sylvie Russo, and Monica Barbaro plays folk singer Joan Baez. Award-winning actor Edward Norton plays music artist Pete Seeger, and Boyd Holbrook plays Johnny Cash.

‘A Complete Unknown’ Trailer

In the trailer, Timmy is heard singing one of Bob’s hits “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”

Does Timothee Sing in ‘A Complete Unknown’?

According to A Complete Unknown director James Mangold, the Call Me By Your Name star does, in fact, sing in this movie. While speaking with Rolling Stone in July 2024, the Walk the Line director confirmed that Timmy “was a partner in this” endeavor, referring to providing vocals for the film.

“You want everyone putting everything on the line every moment,” James explained to the publication. “But it’s not [like] if one of our actors hit a bad note, I don’t have an alternative take or the ability to replace that one beat. If Timmy’s brave enough to stand out there and make himself vulnerable, throwing himself at this, I should be brave enough to stand behind the camera and shoot. And Timmy was a partner in this. He very much wanted to.”

The filmmaker also pointed out that the biopic had been in development for several years.

“And the multiple years of preparation that we had on this movie because of false starts with Covid and stuff meant that Timmy really had a kind of incubation as a musician that was years in happening,” James added. “And Monica Barbaro as well. She was cast when we were gonna make the movie before Indy. So a lot of these people have been in place for an incredible amount of time, and used that time incredibly successfully in their own musical journey.”

Was Bob Dylan Involved With the Movie?

The director also confirmed that Bob was, indeed, involved in the creation of A Complete Unknown. While recalling meeting with the “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” hitmaker, James told the folk artist that the movie is “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.”

James recalled Bob saying, “I like that idea,” in response.