We now know when we will be hearing the music of Bob Dylan at our local multiplex. On Tuesday, Searchlight Pictures confirmed that A Complete Unknown will be debuting exclusively in theaters on Christmas Day, Wednesday, December 25th. This new release date will have A Complete Unknown open against Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, which is already prompting “Barbenheimer” double feature comparisons on social media.
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Directed by Logan and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny‘s James Mangold, A Complete Unknown will star Timothée Chalamet as folk legend Bob Dylan. The film already debuted its first teaser trailer late last month.
What Is A Complete Unknown About?
A Complete Unknown will chronicle the early life and times of Dylan. Set in New York in the early 1960s, the film begins as the enigmatic 19-year-old from Minnesota arrives in Greenwich Village and ignites an “upheaval in the folk community” when, in 1965, he straps on an electric guitar. The ensemble cast of A Complete Unknown will also include Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, Elle Fanning as Slyie Russo, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, Nick Offerman as Alan Lomax, and Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, replacing Benedict Cumberbatch. As Mangold has previously explained, A Complete Unknown is actually loosely inspired by the events of Dylan’s actual life.
“It’s not really a Bob Dylan biopic,” Mangold said during an interview last year. “The reason Bob has been so supportive of us making it, is it’s about, as in all cases I think of the best true-life movies are never cradle to grave but they’re about a very specific moment. In this case, it might sound Altman-esque, but it’s a kind of ensemble piece about this moment in time, the early ’60s in New York, and this 17-year-old kid with $16 in his pockets hitchhikes his way to New York to meet Woody Guthrie who is in the hospital and is dying of a nerve disease. He sings Woody a song that he wrote for him and befriends Pete Seeger, who is like a son to Woody, and Pete sets him up with gigs at local clubs and there you meet Joan Baez and all these other people who are part of this world.”
As mentioned above, A Complete Unknown will be released exclusively in theaters on Wednesday, December 25th.
