Timothée Chalamet is continuing to prepare for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in his long in-development big screen biopic, Going Electric, which includes doing his own singing. During a new interview with Collider during the Star Wars Celebration in London, the film’s director, James Mangold, confirmed that the Oscar-nominated actor will be performing his own songs for the project.
The Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny helmer talked about the time frame the movie’s narrative will take place. “It’s such an amazing time in American culture and the story of Bob — a young 19-year-old Bob Dylan coming to New York with like two dollars in his pocket and becoming a worldwide sensation within three years,” he said. “First being embraced into the family of folk music in New York and kind of outrunning them at a certain point as his star rises so beyond belief.”
The filmmaker added: “It’s such an interesting true story at about such an interesting moment in the American scene, different characters from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan, to Pete Seeger to Joan Baez, all have a role to play in this movie.”
Going Electric‘s studio, Searchlight Pictures, confirmed it had began working on the feature about the Grammy-winning folk-blues-country singer-songwriter in January 2020. Mangold and Chalamet became attached to the biopic soon after.
At the time of the movie’s initial announcement, it wasn’t known if the Golden Globe-nominated actor would sing the Academy Award-winning musician’s songs. But it was known that Chalamet had started taking guitar lessons in preparation for the role.
Since it’s initial announcement, there have also been reports that Going Electric was no longer in development. Since the first report, Mangold moved on to direct the fifth entry in the Indiana Jones film series, but Chalamet has shared that he’s confident that the biopic will be moving forward.
The SAG-nominated actor added: “I haven’t stopped preparing, which has been one of the greatest gifts for me. It’s been a wonderful experience getting to dive into that world, whether we get to make it or not. But without giving anything away — because I don’t want to beat anyone to the punch, and obviously things have to come together officially — the winds that are blowing are blowing in a very positive direction.”
In fall 2020, Chalamet heft his hometown of New York City and traveled to Woodstock to better research and understand Dylan’s life. “It’s not like I’m suffering from lack of connection otherwise,” the actor told GQ magazine at the time. “But it just really feels like I’m connecting to something here.”
The actor didn’t say nothing else about the fate of the biopic, but he implied it will be moving forward. Before Chalamet has the chance to play Dylan, however, he’ll first show off his singing voice as Willy Wonka in Warner Bros.’ upcoming musical origin story, Wonka. He has at least seven musical numbers in the movie.
“That was something I was very excited to jump into right away,” the actor said about the fantasy prequel. He added that Wonka, which was helmed by Paul King, the director of the Paddington movies, “built a literal dance studio in one of the lots at Leavesden in London at Warner Bros.” to help him train.
If Going Electric does go into production, it will likely start next year at the earliest. Chalamet is currently balancing shooting Dune: Part 2 while completing his global Bones and All press tour.