The true story behind A Complete Unknown, as Bob Dylan biopic lands on Disney+
Timothée Chalamet swaps his Willy Wonka top hat for Bob Dylan's harmonica in A Complete Unknown, the latest movie to tackle the life and times of a music icon. Telling a key moment in the life of a musical legend, the film is coming to Disney+ this week following its big-screen release earlier this year.
The musical biopic earned eight Oscar nominations, including nods for Best Picture and Best Actor for Chalamet. It was directed by Walk the Line filmmaker James Mangold, fresh from his time unearthing a cinematic heavy-hitter in 2023 sequel Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
Ahead of its streaming release, here's your guide to the true story behind A Complete Unknown.
A Complete Unknown will be available to stream on Disney+ from from Wednesday, 30 April, following its cinema release in January. It follows the success of other movies that showcased the lives of stage stars like Queen's 2018 feature Bohemian Rhapsody and 2019's Elton John film Rocketman.
The trailer for A Complete Unknown provides glimpses at Dylan in his early career — from a scruffy troubadour arriving in a windswept Greenwich Village to a shades-wearing folk star whose music was soundtracking an America in flux. Watch it by hitting play on the video below.
Dune star Chalamet takes the leading role in Mangold's movie, which focuses on one key moment in a career littered with important turning points that changed the direction of pop culture.
The film finds the Duluth-born songwriter in the 1960s as he's about to shake up his musical style by ditching the folk hero aesthetic that fans love and going electric.
In real life, this was a moment that occurred at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. While it was initially met with anger and confusion from Dylan fans who adored their acoustic guitar-wielding, Woody Guthrie-esque folk hero, it later emerged as a cultural shift that not only paved the way for him to write new hit songs but also gave birth to a brand new chapter of popular culture.
However, this transition didn't come without plenty of growing pains. One such issue was infamously captured during Dylan's performance at Manchester's Free Trade Hall in 1966 where a disgruntled fan loudly labelled him 'Judas!'.
The film takes artistic licence with this moment, as Mangold portrays it as happening at during Dylan's set at 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The director told Entertainment Weekly: 'That came from a concert in Manchester, England. But it happened. It was just a concert a little while later.
'But if you see the documentary interviews from the Manchester concerts where he also went electric, you can feel the hot rage from these Dylan fans who feel utterly betrayed that he has moved in this new direction.'
To prepare for playing such an influential musician, the Wonka star practised his guitar playing and singing. He performs his own vocals on the Dylan tracks used in the movie, which include hits Like a Rolling Stone, Blowin' in the Wind and The Times They Are A-Changin'.
A Complete Unknown also chronicles Dylan's relationship with university student and artist Suze Rotolo — with Elle Fanning playing a fictionalised version of her, renamed Sylvie Russo.
Rotolo dated Dylan between 1961 to 1964, and appeared alongside on the cover of 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. She later recounted their relationship in her memoir, A Freewheelin' Time, and died from cancer in 2011, aged 67.
Dylan requested that Rotolo's name was changed for the film, as their relationship was 'sacred' to him. Mangold explained that Dylan had 'given me permission to make so much of the movie that he had this one personal request about someone who'd already passed on.'
The movie features appearances from other musicians that were circulating the New York scene throughout the 1960s. Fubar star Monica Barbaro plays singer-songwriter Joan Baez, whose output and collaborations were integral in forming Dylan as an early artist.
Fight Club's Edward Norton portrays fellow musician Pete Seeger, with Boyd Holbrook stepping into the shoes of country legend Johnny Cash. Speak No Evil actor Scoot McNairy rounds out the cast as one of Dylan's biggest creative muses, Woody Guthrie.
A Complete Unknown will be streaming on Disney+ from 30 April
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