Everything we know about Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown

Timothée Chalamet will soon be swapping his Willy Wonka top hat for Bob Dylan’s harmonica in A Complete Unknown, the latest movie to tackle the life and times of a music icon. Telling a key moment in the life of a musical legend, the movie will be directed by James Mangold, fresh from his time unearthing a cinematic heavy-hitter in 2023 sequel Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

Promising to focus on a key moment in a career littered with important turning points that changed the direction of pop culture, A Complete Unknown has been in development for a while and experienced numerous delays. However, with Indy out of the way, Mangold finally looks set to enter Dylan’s world. Here’s everything we know about A Complete Unknown so far.

When will A Complete Unknown be released?

A Complete Unknown will be released in UK cinemas on January 17, 2025, according to Digital Spy, following its US release on Christmas Day 2024.

Searchlight Pictures originally revealed plans to develop a Bob Dylan biopic in 2020 following the success of other movies that showcased the lives of stage stars like Queen’s 2018 feature Bohemian Rhapsody and 2019’s Elton John film Rocketman.

However, before production could begin it hit a snag in the form of the pandemic. Now that movie sets have returned to some form of normality and Mangold has seen Indy off into the sunset, A Complete Unknown finally entered production and began shooting in New York City in March 2024.

Is there a trailer for A Complete Unknown?

The world got its first look at Chalamet’s Dylan in July 2024 when the teaser trailer for A Complete Unknown made its way online.

The short teaser provided glimpses at Dylan during various stages of his early career — from a scruffy troubadour arriving in a windswept Greenwich Village to a shades-wearing folk star whose music was soundtracking an America in flux. Watch it by hitting play on the video below.

The full-length trailer arrived in October 2024, giving fans a further glimpse at Chalamet’s transformation into the musical icon. The clip is soundtracked by seminal Dylan songs Like a Rolling Stone and Girl From the North Country, performed by the actor himself. Watch it below.

What is the plot of A Complete Unknown?

Dune star Chalamet will take the leading role in Mangold’s movie, finding the Duluth-born songwriter in the 1960s as he’s about to shake up his musical style by ditching the folk hero aesthetic that fans love and going electric.

In real life, this was a moment that occurred at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. While it was initially met with anger and confusion from Dylan fans who adored their acoustic guitar-wielding, Woody Guthrie-esque folk hero, it later emerged as a cultural shift that not only paved the way for him to write new hit songs but also gave birth to a brand new chapter of popular culture.

However, this transition didn’t come without plenty of growing pains. One such issue was infamously captured during Dylan’s performance at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall in 1965 where a disgruntled fan loudly labelled him “Judas!”.

The movie will also chronicle Dylan’s relationship with University student and artist Sylvie Russo and feature appearances from other musicians that were circulating the New York scene throughout the 1960s.

“It’s such an amazing time in American culture and the story of… a young 19-year-old Bob Dylan coming to New York with like two dollars in his pocket and becoming a worldwide sensation within three years,” Mangold explained during a conversation with Collider. “First being embraced into the family of folk music in New York, and kind of outrunning them at a certain point as his star rises so beyond belief.”

Who is starring in A Complete Unknown?

As previously mentioned, Chalamet will be playing Dylan in Mangold’s biopic.

To prepare for playing such an influential musician, the Wonka star has been practising his guitar playing and will perform his own vocals on the Dylan tracks used in the movie. “I haven’t stopped preparing, which has been one of the greatest gifts for me,” the star previously told Variety. "It’s been a wonderful experience getting to dive into that world.”

During the press tour for Dune 2, Chalamet expressed an interest in creating a crossover between his Dylan and Austin Butler’s Elvis Presley. “I’m deep in the Bob Dylan lore and he had tremendous respect for Elvis and Sun Records,” the star told NME. “I wish you were in it! There’s an Elvis character in the Johnny Cash biopic [Walk the Line]. It’s really brief, it’s very brief, but I was kind of wishing we could create a musical cinematic universe.”

Elle Fanning has been cast as Dylan’s love interest Russo, with Edward Norton playing fellow musician Pete Seeger. Singer-songwriter Joan Baez, whose output and collaborations were integral in forming Dylan as an early artist will also appear in the movie, alongside one of Dylan’s biggest creative muses, Woody Guthrie.

Fubar star Monica Barbaro will play Baez while Scoot McNairy will play Woody Guthrie.

A Complete Unknown will be released in UK cinemas on January 17, 2025