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Elle Fanning has been cast to star alongside Timothée Chalamet in Searchlight Pictures’ long in-development Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, Deadline is reporting. The Great actress and Call Me by Your Name actor will also be joined by Monica Barbaro in the biographical movie.
A Complete Unknown is being directed by two-time Oscar nominated filmmaker James Mangold, who’s also helming another anticipated feature – Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The director will begin production on the biopic about Dylan in New York this summer.
Jay Cocks, who was nominated for an Academy Award for writing the script for Gangs of New York, penned the sceeenplay for A Complete Unknown. Mangold is handling revisions on the upcoming movie’s script.
Mangold’s next film will follow a young Dylan as he shakes up the music world in 1965. The story will also chronicle how the Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter pivots to performing with an electric guitar for the first time.
The Oscar-nominated Chalamet has been cast to play Dylan in A Complete Unknown. The Emmy Award-nominated Fanning will play the role of Dylan’s early ’60s love interest, Sylvie Russo, who’s a university student and an artist.
Dylan’s longtime manager Jeff Rosen is producing the musical biopic with Veritas Entertainment Group’s Bob Bookman, Alan Gasmer and Peter Jaysen, Automatik’s Fred Berger, The Picture Company’s Alex Heineman, and Mangold. Dylan and Automatik’s Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Andrew Rona are serving as executive producers on the movie.
Recognized so far in her career with nominations at the Critics’ Choice Awards, Golden Globes, SAG Awards, Gotham Awards and Independent Spirit Awards, Fanning currently leads the historical satire television series, The Great. The comedy-drama, which was created by Tony McNamara, returned for its third season on Hulu this past Friday, May 12.
The in-demand actress previously led Hulu’s crime drama miniseries The Girl from Plainville. She also starred in the two Maleficent films for Disney, as well as such titles as Teen Spirit, Mary Shelley, The Beguiled, 20th Century Women, The Neon Demon, Trumbo, We Bought a Zoo, Twixt, Super 8, Somewhere, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Babel. A Complete Unknown marks her second collaboration with Chalamet after they previously co-starred in the 2019 rom-com, A Rainy Day in New York, which was scribed and helmed by Woody Allen.