Searchlight Pictures have revealed the official release date for their upcoming biopic, A Complete Unknown. The film will arrive in cinemas in the United States on December 25th, 2024 and in the United Kingdom on January 17th, 2025.
A Complete Unknown will follow Dylan through his rise to global success, starting with his move to New York at age 19. The motion picture will conclude with his controversial appearance at 1965’s Newport Folk Festival, where he made the bold choice to go electric.
The biopic stars Academy Award nominee Timothée Chalamet as Dylan, who has found global success through appearances in coming-of-age favourites by Luca Guadagnino and Greta Gerwig, as well as Denis Villeneuve’s ambitious sci-fi series, Dune. He has also worked in the biopic realm before, starring in Felix van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy in 2018.
Chalamet leads a star-studded cast. Edward Norton takes on the role of fellow folk singer Pete Seeger, while Elle Fanning plays Sylvie Russo, a character seemingly based on Dylan’s romantic partner in the early 1960s, Suze Rotolo. Monica Barbaro will portray Joan Baez, while Scoot McNairy takes on the role of Woody Guthrie.
James Mangold is set to direct, whose recent credits include huge blockbusters like Logan and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Mangold also has some experience in the biopic realm. In 2005, he helmed Walk the Line, an Academy Award-winning biopic focused on country icon Johnny Cash.
An official trailer for the film arrived a couple of weeks back, providing a first look at Chalamet as the legendary songwriter. The teaser hints at Dylan’s initial move to the Big Apple, showing Chalamet hauling a backpack and a guitar case through the streets.
It also provides a glimpse at the development of his relationship with Sylvie Russo (based on Suze Rotolo), while Chamalet’s voice sings ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ in the background. “I wanna tell you a little story,” Norton says in a voiceover, “A few months back, my friend Woody Guthrie and I, we met a young man. He dropped in on us out of nowhere and he played us a song. And in that moment we got a feeling we were getting a glimpse of the future.”
Speaking on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, Mangold recently noted of A Complete Unknown: “I am not here to say I am making the Jon Meacham definitive biography, that’s not my job. My job is to kind of explore the specific aspect in Bob’s life and the people around him and this moment in America, to be honest, this ground zero in New York.”
A Complete Unknown is set for release on January 17th, 2025, in the United Kingdom and December 25th, 2024, in the United States.