Timothee Chalamet sings as Bob Dylan in first trailer for upcoming biopic
Timothee Chalamet performs the Bob Dylan song A Hard Rain’s A‐Gonna Fall from the 1960s in a preview for the new movie about the famous American musician and songwriter.
The American actor, 28 years old, who is also involved as a producer for the film, has taken on the character of Dylan by dressing in authentic folk singer attire for the movie A Complete Unknown.
The preview starts with quick looks of Chalamet, sporting curly brown hair and sunglasses, strolling through the dimly lit streets of what seems to be New York City, the place where Dylan's success began.
In a small venue, actor Edward Norton, known for his role in Fight Club, introduced a young Bob Dylan to the audience as American folk singer Pete Seeger.
He shared: "I'd like to share a small anecdote with you. Some time ago, my friend Woody Guthrie and I encountered a young man who appeared out of the blue and performed a song for us. In that instant, we had a sense that we were witnessing a peek into what lay ahead."
Chalamet proceeds to play A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall on the guitar, his face remaining hidden in the shadow. As he continues, his profile is finally unveiled, showing him dressed in a tan jacket and shirt.
This is mixed with videos of him at a church location, where he observes The Great actress Elle Fanning playing Sylvie Russo, a character inspired by Suze Rotolo, an artist who was involved in the Greenwich Village community with Dylan and was his girlfriend in the 1960s.
Fanning plants a quick kiss on his cheek, then Chalamet is spotted kissing Top Gun: Maverick actress Monica Barbaro while portraying folk singer and counterculture icon Joan Baez. They would perform duets together, like the song With God On Our Side.
The film is helmed by James Mangold, who also directed the highly praised Johnny Cash biographical movie Walk The Line featuring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. The film received five Oscar nominations and won Best Actress for Witherspoon.
In the vibrant music scene of New York in the early 1960s, A Complete Unknown tells the story of 19-year-old musician Bob Dylan from Minnesota. Played by Timothee Chalamet, the film follows Dylan's rapid success as a folk singer, taking him from small venues to the top of the music charts. His music and intriguing persona capture the world's attention, leading to his historic electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.
In the 1960s, Dylan played a leading role in bringing back folk music in the US with albums like Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, and The Times They Are A-Changin'. These albums featured acoustic guitar music.
In the album Bringing It All Back Home, released in 1965, he started using electronic instruments. His performance at the Newport Folk Festival was criticized for being too loud, even by Seeger, with whom he had a close relationship.
Robert Zimmerman was born in Duluth, Minnesota. He became the first songwriter to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. The Swedish academy praised him for his innovative and unique poetic contributions to American music.
His music has been recorded over 6,000 times, with a wide range of artists like The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, and Adele achieving both commercial and critical acclaim with their cover versions.
Dylan has sold over 125 million records around the world and received an Oscar for best original song in 2001 for Things Have Changed, a song he wrote for the movie Wonder Boys.
In 2007, he appeared in the movie I'm Not There. This film had different actors playing the role of Dylan, such as Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, and the late Heath Ledger.
A Netflix documentary called Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story By Martin Scorsese featured him participating in an on-camera interview, believed to be his first one in ten years for the project.
The upcoming movie does not have a confirmed premiere date yet.
