The cinematic legend of Bob Dylan, previously seen in various documentaries, the offbeat biopic I’m Not There, and the last scene of Inside Llewyn Davis among other films, is getting one more chapter.
A movie about Dylan’s famous “electric” appearance in 1965 is set to go, Deadline reported this week. According to the report, actor Timothée Chalamet will star as Dylan in the film, which will be directed by James Mangold. The film, based on a script by Jay Cocks, will be authorized by Dylan and his team, and include his music.
The film, tentatively titled “Going Electric,” will focus on the famous moment in 1965 when Dylan performed an electric set at the Newport Folk Festival. The historic performance was greeted with boos, but was a key moment in the evolution of the performer and of rock music itself.
Chalamet, currently starring in Little Women, has two prominent movies coming in 2020. He’ll play a part in the ensemble cast in Wes Anderson’s next film, The French Dispatch, and will star as Paul Atreides in director Denis Villeneuve’s new take on Dune.
The actor also plays the lead role in Woody Allen’s film A Rainy Day in New York, which wasn’t released in the United States.
Mangold, who most recently directed the well-received historical drama Ford v. Ferrari, has an eclectic resume, which has included multiple films in the X-Men franchise, and also the previous musical biopic Walk the Line.
Dylan’s story has been told on screen before many times. Both the ’60s documentary Don’t Look Back and Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home featured the Newport incident, while Scorsese directed another historical Dylan documentary, Rolling Thunder Revue, last year.
The most expansive authorized Dylan biopic to date was director Todd Haynes’ 2007 I’m Not There, in which several different actors – including Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Richard Gere and Heath Ledger – played different aspects of Dylan’s persona.
In addition, Dylan appeared, mostly in shadow, in the final moments of 2013’s Inside Llewyn Davis, as played by actor Ben Pike, while Hayden Christiansen played a Dylan stand-in, credited as “The Musician,” in the 2006 Edie Sedgwick biopic Factory Girl.
There’s no word on a release date for the film.
