Bob Dylan’s biopic “A Complete Unknown” will be released at Christmas

Bob Dylan’s biopic “A Complete Unknown” will be released at Christmas

James Mangold's upcoming Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” will hit theaters on December 25, Searchlight Pictures announced Tuesday.

The prime release date not only provides the perfect excuse to head to the movies during the holidays, but also creates excitement come awards season.

Starring Timothée Chalamet as the legendary folk musician, the film takes audiences back to the early years of Dylan's career. It begins in the early 1960s with 19-year-old Dylan in New York City, having just moved from Minnesota, and ends with his celebrated performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where he came onstage with an electric guitar.

His arrival sparked an “uproar in the folk community and in the notion of what was respectable and forbidden folk,” as Mangold described it.

The first trailer for the film was released in July, giving fans the first official footage of Chalamet singing as the music legend himself, something both the actor and Dylan's fans had been waiting for after years of delays.

The star-studded cast also 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 and Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie.

Although Dylan is at the center of the story, Mangold noted during an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via IndieWire) that it is an ensemble piece about “a very specific moment” in 1960s New York and not just a “Bob Dylan biopic.”

“A Complete Unknown” was adapted by Mangold and Jay Cocks from Elijah Wald’s “Dylan Goes Electric!”, first published in 2015. Dylan himself also provided Mangold with notes on the script, an annotated copy that Mangold said he greatly appreciates.

Chalamet and Mangold produced the film along with Fred Berger, Alex Heineman, Peter Jaysen, Bob Bookman, Alan Gasmer and Jeff Rosen.

Watch the trailer below.

See Searchlight Pictures’ “A Complete Unknown” in theaters on December 25.

Photo by Weston M on Unsplash