“Walk the Line” is a remarkable film, frequently cited for its exceptional casting and as a pivotal example in the evolution of the modern biopic. Reese Witherspoon’s portrayal of June Carter-Cash earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2006.

A few years later, Judd Apatow and his team released “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”, a parody of “Walk the Line”, the broader musician biopic genre, and Mangold’s directorial style. Starring John C. Reilly as Dewey Cox, Walk Hard is celebrated for its wit, humor, and originality, though it significantly impacted the production of similar films for many years.

John C. Riley as Dewey Cox alongside Jenna Fischer as Darlene Madison in 2007’s “Walk Hard”. (c) Columbia Pictures, Apatow Productions

With biopics experiencing a huge resurgence, highlighted by an upcoming film about Michael Jackson, Mangold is returning to the genre to explore the life of Bob Dylan, featuring Timothée Chalamet in the lead role.

“The first time I sat down with him, Bob said, ‘What’s this movie about, Jim?’ I said, ‘It’s about a guy who’s choking to death in Minnesota, and leaves behind all his friends and family and reinvents himself in a brand new place, makes new friends, builds a new family, becomes phenomenally successful, starts to choke to death again — and runs away.” Dylan took all of that in, and smiled. “I like that,” he said.” 

– James Mangold to Rolling Stone

Director James Mangold and Timothée Chalamet on the set of A COMPLETE UNKNOWN. Photo by Macall Polay, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Although “A Complete Unknown” does not yet have an official release date, its first teaser trailer was released this month, with plans for a December release. The film follows Bob Dylan’s journey starting with his arrival in New York in 1961 and concluding shortly after his groundbreaking electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Timothée Chalamet stars as Dylan, with Elle Fanning playing his girlfriend Sylvie Russo (a fictionalized version of Dylan’s real-life girlfriend Suze Rotolo), Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, and Edward Norton as folk legend Pete Seeger.

“I didn’t want to turn Bob Dylan into a simple character with a simple thing to unlock that then makes you go, ‘Ah, now I get him.’ I don’t think that’s possible, having gotten to know him. I also think it’s pretty clear he spent most of his life trying to avoid that exact act by anybody. Which is an act of, by nature, reduction — reducing someone to a simple epiphany, a plot-point Freudian history of their life. So then my role as a dramatist becomes, if I’m not going to do that… which in a way I did do in Walk the Line. It’s a difference. Johnny Cash is defined by his upbringing, the loss of his brother, the shame he’s carried in life, and an addiction that was driven by the sorrows of his childhood. It lines up very clearly. And his music being about, kind of, imprisonment and darkness — it’s all in incredible, dramatic harmony with these psychological observations about him. None of that would be that easy with Bob.”

– James Mangold to Rolling Stone