Sophia Michaels
Timothée Chalamet’s forthcoming Bob Dylan biopic is shaping up now that the 27-year-old actor’s love interest in the film has been cast. According to a May 15 Deadline report, Elle Fanning is joining the James Mangold-directed flick to play Dylan’s early-’60s sweetheart, university student and artist Sylvie Russo. She’ll also star alongside Monica Barbaro.
Now that more developments are coming to light about the Bob Dylan biopic, we know at least one other key detail: Chalamet is going to be singing in it. In an April 7 interview with Collider, when asked if Chalamet was going to provide his own vocals, Mangold replied, “Of course!” The movie director also revealed that filming is likely going to begin in August of this year and shared a few insights about the plot, too.
“It’s such an amazing time in American culture, and the story of Bob’s — a young, 19-year-old Bob Dylan coming to New York with two dollars in his pocket and becoming a worldwide sensation within three years,” Mangold told the outlet. “First being embraced into a family of folk music in New York, and of course kind of outrunning [them] at a certain point as his star rises so beyond belief.”
Details about the biopic first emerged in early 2020, when Deadline reported that Chalamet was in talks to join Rami Malek and Taron Egerton in the ranks of performers who’ve starred in musical biopics.
Other specifics about the movie are still scarce, but it appears that it’ll be based on the 2015 book “Dylan Goes Electric!” by Elijah Wald. It’ll follow Dylan throughout the ’60s and feature his interactions with Joan Baez (said to be played by Barbaro) and Pete Seeger, among other musicians of the time. Dylan’s manager Jeff Rosen is set to produce. While it was originally called “Going Electric,” in a December 2022 tweet, Mangold shared that the film is titled “A Complete Unknown,” which is a lyric from Dylan’s track “Like a Rolling Stone.”
The biopic was initially delayed by the COVID pandemic and has taken a while to get off the ground, but Chalamet updated Variety on the project in a November 2022 interview. “I haven’t stopped preparing, which has been one of the greatest gifts for me,” he said. “It’s been a wonderful experience getting to dive into that world, whether we get to make it or not. But without giving anything away — because I don’t want to beat anyone to the punch, and obviously things have to come together officially — the winds that are blowing are blowing in a very positive direction.”
The movie won’t be the only chance fans will have to hear Chalamet sing on screen. He is also singing all his own songs for his role as Willy Wonka in the upcoming “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” prequel, “Wonka.” Still, despite the excerpts of Chalamet singing on the “Wonka” set that have emerged, exactly how he’ll sound as both the iconic chocolate-factory owner and musician in each film remains to be seen.
