‘A Complete Unknown’: James Mangold Says His Upcoming Bob Dylan Film Isn’t A Traditional Biopic, Says Dylan Gave Him Notes On Script

With a mixed critical reception and low numbers at the box office, James Mangold‘s new entry in the “Indiana Jones” franchise is officially a disappointment. But that’s not entirely Mangold’s fault. It’s a rough summer for movies so far, and Mangold had some big shoes to fill, following in Steven Spielberg‘s footsteps.

READ MORE: ‘A Complete Unknown’: Monica Barbaro In Talks To Star Opposite Timothée Chalamet In James Mangold’s Upcoming Bob Dylan Biopic

Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained. And it’s not as if Mangold doesn’t have other exciting projects to bounce back with. First up on that front, his Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” which stars Timothée Chalamet as the iconic folk singer. But IndieWire reports (via the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast) that Mangold doesn’t consider his upcoming film a biopic in the traditional sense, and Dylan’s behind-the-scenes involvement with its script has something to do with that.

“By the way, it’s not really a Bob Dylan biopic,” Mangold told the hosts of “Happy Sad Confused.” “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 [Robert] 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.”

The phrase “Altman-esque” should prick up the ears of cinephiles. But Mangold continued to talk about what he and Dylan wanted to focus on in the script. Mangold continued, “And 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, and this wanderer who comes in from Minnesota with a fresh name and a fresh outlook on life, becomes a star, signs to the biggest record company in the world within a year, and three years later, has record sales rivaling The Beatles.”

In essence, Mangold wants “A Complete Unknown” to be less a pic solely about Dylan than have it be about the “upheaval in the folk community” that the songwriter causes. And Mangold and Dylan shared notes over the script to make sure that essence comes through. “I’ve spent several, wonderfully charming, days in his company, just one-on-one, talking to him,” Mangold went on. “I have a script that’s personally annotated by him and treasured by me. He loves movies. The first time I sat down with Bob, one of the first things he said to me was, ‘I love “Copland.””

Mangold hopes that focusing on Dylan’s iconoclasm more than his iconic persona will give “A Complete Unknown” a singular register audiences respond to. “It all has tremendous relevance even now because of the way we are all so tribalized with rules about what our music should be, about what our rules are, how we speak, how we express ourselves,” said the director. “And Bob from the beginning has always been someone who is always pressing against those boundaries.”

Production on “A Complete Unknown” begins this summer. And with any luck, the film will see Mangold bounce back in a big way after “The Dial Of Destiny” floundered. With Chalamet doing his own renditions of Dylan’s songs for the pic, it’s safe to assume all eyes will be on this movie as it approaches its theatrical release, likely sometime next year.