Delayed Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet to begin filming this summer
The delayed Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet is set to begin filming this summer, its director has confirmed.
The project was announced in 2020, before being delayed indefinitely later that year with no release timeframe shared.
The film is being helmed by Le Mans ’66 filmmaker James Mangold and is reportedly titled Going Electric. It will focus on Dylan’s controversial decision in 1965 to embrace the electric guitar, alienating many of his original fans.
It was claimed by Deadline in 2020 that Chalamet was learning guitar for the role “so he can familiarise himself with the acoustic and electric guitar”.
Now, Mangold has confirmed that the Dune actor will also sing all Dylan’s songs himself for the film, which is now on track to shoot this August.
“It’s such an interesting true story about such an interesting moment in the American scene,” Mangold told Collider.
Watch the interview below.
.@mang0ld tells us his @bobdylan biopic with #TimothéeChalamet starts filming in August and Chalamet will do his own singing in the film. #StarWarsCelebration pic.twitter.com/yVluBMTeJz
— Collider (@Collider) April 7, 2023
It was cinematographer Phedon Papamichael who revealed the film’s delay in 2020, telling Collider: “We were going to do Bob Dylan with [director James] Mangold that didn’t happen, with Timothée Chalamet, about going electric in the ’60s.”
According to Papamichael, the movie’s need for period-specific settings and costuming were proving a challenge with the current coronavirus restrictions, forcing it to be postponed. “I don’t think it’s dead, but it’s a tough one to pull off in a Covid-era because it’s all in small clubs with lots of extras in period costumes so you’ve got lots of hair and makeup,” he explained.
Mangold has previous with music biopics, having written and directed the acclaimed Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line in 2005.
Dylan has been portrayed on the big screen before, most notably in the 2007 musical drama I’m Not There where various versions of him were played by the likes of Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and the late Heath Ledger.
