If Timothée Chalamet‘s dream comes true, he’ll reunite with “Dune: Part Two” co-star Austin Butler for “A Complete Unknown.” NME reports that in a joint interview with the actors for Denis Villeneuve‘s new sequel, Chalamet stated he’d love to see his Bob Dylan somehow bump into Butler’s Elvis Presley from Baz Luhrmann‘s 2022 biopic cameo in James Mangold‘s upcoming film.
“I can’t wait for that film,” Butler said after Chalamet hinted he’d been “picking” his fellow actor’s brain about portraying a legendary musical icon. “I wish I could be on set every day to just watch the magic happen.” Chalamet replied, “I wish you were in it! There’s an Elvis character in the Johnny Cash biopic [2005’s “Walk The Line“]. It’s really brief, it’s very brief, but I was kind of wishing we could create a musical cinematic universe.”
A musical cinematic universe? That doesn’t sound that appealing, but based on when “A Complete Unknown” takes place, it maybe makes sense for Dylan and Presley to cross paths in the movie. Mangold’s film centers on a seminal moment of Dylan’s career: the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, when Dylan first used an electric guitar in concert. That year, Elvis Presley was arguably the world’s biggest pop icon, topping music charts and the Hollywood box-office. But Dylan and Presley never met in real life, so a Butler cameo would stick out badly in the story Mangold wants to tell.
And besides, it remains unclear when production on “A Complete Unknown” will even begin. Mangold planned to start shooting the movie last August, but the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes killed those plans. Since then, there’s been no updates on a production schedule. But Chalamet and Butler’s calendars are wide open if Mangold wants to put the two onscreen together. Chalamet’s only attached to “A Complete Unkonwn” for upcoming projects, while Butler isn’t attached to anything.
It’s worth nothing Chalamet has talked about his esteem for Butler before. Last October, the actor told GQ that he was so impressed with Butler’s voice for Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen during “Dune: Part Two” script reads that he sought out Butler’s voice-prep team for “Elvis” afterward. “I’ve basically been working with his entire “Elvis” team for my Dylan prep,” said Chalamet. “There’s a wonderful dialect coach named Tim Monich. Vocal coach named Eric Vetro. Movement coach named Polly Bennett. I just saw the way he committed to it all—and realized I needed to step it up.”
While an Elvis cameo in “A Complete Unknown” is a cute idea, don’t expect a Butler-Chalamet reunion in the film. Mangold’s project already has a stacked cast, including Monica Barbaro, Edward Norton, and Elle Fanning, Boyd Holbrook, Nick Offerman, and P.J Byrne. And all those actors play eminent figures in the ’60s folk scene in the film, which Elvis wasn’t a part of. In other words, Butler’s Elvis would stick out like a sore thumb in “A Complete Unknown,” so while it’s fun to see Chalamet and Butler bro out, let’s not pretend that this cameo idea is a good one.
