James Mangold Aims at Late March Production Start for ‘A Complete Unknown’
The upcoming Bob Dylan biopic from James Mangold is looking at a late March production start date, according to World of Reel. The pic was delayed from a summer 2023 start when the writers and actors went on strike, and after a few months of trying to get it back on its feet, it seems like it’s finally time to start shooting.
A Complete Unknown stars Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan; the Wonka star has already recorded the majority of the songs for the film after working for months with his singing coach, Eric Vetro, who also worked with Austin Butler on Elvis. Benedict Cumberbatch, Elle Fanning, Boyd Holbrook, Monica Barbaro, and Nick Offerman are also set to star.
Filming will take place in Montreal and New York. We don’t know for sure why Mangold couldn’t get this movie in front of the cameras as soon as the strikes were over, though it seems fair to assume they wanted to give Chalamet time to promote both Wonka and Dune: Part Two. Searchlight Pictures is backing A Complete Unknown, which will follow 19-year-old Dylan as he arrives in New York and meets Pete Seeger (Cumberbatch) and Joan Baez (Barbaro).
James Mangold released last year the fifth Indiana Jones installment starring Harrison Ford, which received mild reviews after two bangers in Logan and Ford V Ferrari. With the Bob Dylan biopic, Mangold probably wants to go back to a smaller project before he takes on two big studio pictures: a Star Wars movie and DC’s Swamp Thing.
No release date has been set for the film. It was looking like a late 2024 film back when it was going to shoot last summer, but if they can actually whip it up rather quickly, they might still meet next Oscar season’s deadlines. They might not want to rush it, but Chalamet doesn’t have any other project lined up that we know of, so the studio could weigh their chances at getting him an Oscar next year.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
