Searchlight Pictures has just closed a deal with director James Mangold for a biopic about a seminal moment in musician Bob Dylan’s life. Timothee Chalamet, this generation’s heartthrob, will be starring as the young folk singer, whose switch to the electric guitar and amp caused an outcry but cemented him in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. Mangold is fresh off the success of last year’s “Ford v. Ferrari,” which starred Christian Bale and Matt Damon.
Chalamet has also had quite the year; his role as Laurie in Greta Gerwig’s adaptation “Little Women” was critically acclaimed, as were his roles in both “Call Me By Your Name” (for which he was nominated for an Academy Award) and “Lady Bird,” also written and directed by Gerwig. Negotiations for Chalamet are still underway, but he’s expected to start shooting after his role on “4,000 Miles” wraps up on the stage.
And it’s not as if Chalamet will have a slow year. He’s already expected to star in Wes Anderson’s latest, “The French Dispatch,” and close out the year with Denis Villanueve’s “Dune.”
At just 19, Dylan was posed to become folk’s next hero, but he had different ideas. When he went electric at the 50th anniversary of the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, there was nearly a riot. Folk loyalists called him a traitor, while rock fans thought him to be a wannabee. No one could have probably thought, though, that Dylan would become the genre’s biggest star, even winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.
This will be Mangold’s second music biopic after 2005’s “Walk the Line,” which starred Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.
By Michael Jacobo
