Timothée Chalamet will play Bob Dylan in a new music biopic from James Mangold (Ford v. Ferrari). The film has the working title of Going Electric.
As first reported by Deadline, Dylan is working closely with Mangold on the upcoming flick. Dylan’s longtime manager Jeff Rosen will produce, and Mangold has already rewritten a first draft by Jay Cocks (Gangs of New York).
Bob Dylan aficionados will have guessed this from the working title, but the script tells the story of Dylan’s controversial 1965 performance at the Newport Music Festival. At the time, Dylan had established a reputation as the heir apparent to Woody Guthrie and the biggest hero of the ’60s folk music revival. His decision at Newport to amplify his guitar was met with boos and cheers in equal measure, and for the rest of the decade Dylan became a polarizing figure in the folk scene. In the years that followed, Dylan’s decision to go electric has often been cited as a turning point in popular music, a moment of transition away from folk and towards rock & roll.
Reports suggest that Searchlight Pictures and Chalamet are still finalizing negotiations, but that filming is expected to start after Chalamet wraps up a stage play in London this spring. According to sources at Deadline, Chalamet is already taking guitar lessons.
Over the last two years Timothée Chalamet has been on a rocket ride to superstardom, and he’s recently drawn rave reviews for his work in Little Women. You can catch him later on in 2020 in Dune as well as Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch.
Last year, Bob Dylan released Travelin’ Thru, 1967-1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 15. In April he’ll be playing 14 dates in Tokyo, Japan, and you can get tickets here.