What we know about 'A Complete Unknown' - and why it's so hard to get Bob Dylan right

The film will be set in the early 1960s – the moment in time when Bob Dylan went from 'complete unknown' to rock star.

A new film about the early life of music icon Bob Dylan is currently filming, and the first photos from the set were just released. A Complete Unknown will star actor Timothée Chalamet as a young, broke Dylan, arriving in New York City to embark on his music career in the early 1960s. 

The film, according to director James Mangold, is not a biopic – it only aims to capture a portion of Dylan's life, zooming in on the very start of what became a long, lucrative career that forever changed music as we know it.

"The best true-life movies are never cradle to grave…they’re about a very specific moment," Mangold said while on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. He says the film is "a kind of ensemble piece about this moment in time, the early '60s in New York, and this 17-year-old kid with $16 in his pockets [who] hitchhikes his way to New York". Dylan meets other like-minded musicians, including Joan Baez, and when he starts playing gigs, the whole Greenwich Village world begins to embrace him.

The songwriter hitchhiked to NYC from Minnesota to meet Woody Guthrie, the singer who had inspired him to play folk music. Guthrie was dying of Huntington's Disease when Dylan first played him a song – and became a frequent visitor at his deathbed. 

Sean Latham, founding director of the Institute for Bob Dylan Studies at the University of Tulsa and the editor of The World Of Bob Dylan biography, tells BBC Culture that 1960s New York was "a magnet for creative, even revolutionary artists around the country and around the world", making it a perfect period for the film to be set in. 

"Before the internet, it was the place to make connections, see what others were doing, experiment collaboratively, and live a life free of imaginative restraint," Latham says. "Dylan came to New York to find Woody Guthrie, but also to find the sounds, ideas, and people that would help him revolutionise American popular music."

The cast

Chalamet, who has graced the big screen in recent films including Wonka and Dune: Part Two, will be playing the iconic Bob Dylan. But he's not the only well-known actor who has been cast. 

Joan Baez, with whom Dylan had a romantic relationship – and who inspired him musically – will be portrayed by Monica Barbaro, who starred in films such as Top Gun: Maverick and The Cathedral. 

Alan Lomax, a folk musician of the era, will be played by Nick Offerman, who starred in Parks and Rec, Pam and Tommy, The Last of Us and BBC Two's Good Omens. Boyd Holbrook, from Netflix's Narcos and the 2014 film Gone Girl, will recreate the presence of the immortal Johnny Cash, and Edward Norton will portray folk singer and activist Pete Seeger. Elle Fanning is cast as young Dylan's love interest, Sylvie Russo.

After photos of Chalamet as the 19-year-old Dylan were published online, the internet began its critique. In the images, Chalamet is seen carrying a guitar in its case, and wearing a worn-down scarf, jacket and a Russian kasket hat. While he's certainly dressed like a 1960s Bob Dylan, reactions to the images were mixed. 

Some on X (formerly Twitter) commented that he resembled Fievel Mousekewitz from the classic 1990s film, An American Tail. Others felt there was something inauthentic about seeing Chalamet in character as Dylan: "Timothee is not rough looking enough to play Dylan," wrote a user on X. "Dylan had so much turmoil going on inside that it showed through his persona. Timothee may be a good actor, but he needs to look the part. Where is the makeup department?"

Playing a living musician – particularly one whose aesthetic evolution has been as well-documented as Dylan's – is a particular challenge, Maggie Flanigan, a theatre costume designer who frequently works on period pieces, tells BBC Culture. That's because "there is a photographic record to pull from", she explains. And, often, those iconic images continue to "live in the public psyche".

Past portrayals of Dylan have seen their share of criticism, too. Memorably, the icon was played by six different actors – Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw – in the nonlinear narrative, I'm Not There. Some of those actors, most notably, Cate Blanchett, received rave reviews for the portrayal. Others weren't so positively received. One Guardian review asserted that at least four of the portrayals "teetered unwittingly on the brink of parody".

Nailing the lead's look is always immensely important, Flanigan says. And not just because of how the audience will interpret them, but also because of how the actor feels wearing the clothes. 

"I have always found that when actors finally get into costumes, it’s when the 'world building' finally feels particularly personal," Flanigan explains. "The texture of historical pieces, the shape of the clothes of an era, how they sit on your body, it helps the actor feel the time."

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Perhaps there's an even more important aspect of the film than appearances, however. For a film about the life of a young musician, audiences will expect a strong soundtrack. And according to Eric Vetro, Chalamet's vocal coach, they won't be let down. 

"When that movie finally comes out, people are going to be shocked because you're going to think you're hearing Bob Dylan sing," Vetro told PEOPLE. "[Timothee] just has this uncanny ability to not impersonate, but really breathe life into it. He's embodying Bob Dylan and what he was like at that age."

As for songs, the tracks in the film would most likely be the ones from early on in Dylan's career. Perhaps we'll hear Song to Woody, the song Dylan played to his hero before his death, or You're No Good, or other tracks from the singer's first album, released in 1962. Some of Dylan's biggest biggest hits, including those that appeared on his first electric album in 1965 such as Mr. Tambourine Man and Maggie's Farm, marked an absolute turning point in Dylan's career, and therefore will almost certainly be included.

That turning point came when the singer started playing electric, spurring an immense backlash. In his memoir, Chronicles, Dylan put the anger at his musical pivot poetically, writing, “What I did to break away, was to take simple folk changes and put new imagery and attitude to them, use catchphrases and metaphor combined with a new set of ordinances that evolved into something different that had not been heard before.” 

The moment when Dylan breaks with tradition will likely be central to the film, as it was originally set to be called Going Electric. Latham says highlighting that part of Dylan's evolution in the film makes sense: "When Dylan picked up an electric guitar, he was initially met by a cascade of boos, whistles, and catcalls," he explains. "In that moment, however, he managed to bind together the history and activism of folk music with the urgent energy of the sixties. Suddenly, folk music was no longer for tweedy purists – while rock music found its social conscience."

The release date for A Complete Unknown has not yet been announced, so for now, fans will have to get by on first looks and old songs. At least there are 40 albums to choose from, starting from when Dylan really was a complete unknown. 

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