With Benedict Cumberbatch leaving Searchlight Picture‘s “A Complete Unknown” due to scheduling conflicts, James Mangold needed a new actor to play musician Pete Seeger. It sounds like he found one, as Deadline reports Edward Norton will replace Cumberbatch as the folk singer one production starts in NYC this summer. Norton joins an ensemble cast with Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, and more.
“A Complete Unknown” follows Chalamet’s young Dylan as she shakes up the folk music scene and rock ‘n roll at large when he starts peforming with an electric guitar in 1965. Other cast members beyond Chalamet, Fanning, Barbaro, and Norton include Nick Offerman, Boyd Holbrook, and P.J. Byrne.
“Gangs Of New York” scribe Jay Cocks pens the script for Mangold’s film, with Mangold doing reivisions. The production team on “A Complete Unknown” includes Range‘s Fred Berger, Peter Jaysen, Bob Bookman, and Alan Gasmer for Veritas Entertainment Group, and The Picture Company‘s Alex Heineman, Jeff Rose. Mangold also produces the picture.
Seeger becomes one of Norton’s only upcoming roles at the moment. He’ll do voice work for the forthcoming “Sausage Party: Foodtopia” TV series. Norton is fresh off performances in “Asteroid City” and the Apple TV+ anthology series “Extrapolations,” as well as playing billionaire idiot Miles Bron in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”
Expect “A Complete Unknown” to get a Summer 2025 release.
