Searchlight Pictures has released the official teaser trailer for A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan. The film, set in the influential New York music scene of the early ’60s, will be released in theaters on December 25, 2024.
A Complete Unknown follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts – his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation – culminating in his groundbreaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.
The movie was directed by James Mangold, whose credits include Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Ford v Ferrari, Logan, The Wolverine, 3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line, Identity, Girl, Interrupted, and Cop Land.
The film stars Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Boyd Holbrook, Norbert Leo Butz, Dan Fogler, and Scoot McNairy.
Mangold directed the film from a screenplay he wrote with Jay Cocks. The producers include Fred Berger, Alex Heineman, Peter Jaysen, Bob Bookman, Alan Gasmer, Jeff Rosen, Timothée Chalamet, and James Mangold.
A Complete Unknown is based on the Elijah Wald book Dylan Goes Electric!, which is officially described as follows: “On the evening of July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan took the stage at Newport Folk Festival, backed by an electric band, and roared into his new rock hit, Like a Rolling Stone. The audience of committed folk purists and political activists who had hailed him as their acoustic prophet reacted with a mix of shock, booing, and scattered cheers.
“It was the shot heard round the world—Dylan’s declaration of musical independence, the end of the folk revival, and the birth of rock as the voice of a generation—and one of the defining moments in twentieth-century music. In Dylan Goes Electric!, Elijah Wald explores the cultural, political and historical context of this seminal event that embodies the transformative decade that was the sixties.
“Wald delves deep into the folk revival, the rise of rock, and the tensions between traditional and groundbreaking music to provide new insights into Dylan’s artistic evolution, his special affinity to blues, his complex relationship to the folk establishment, and his sometime mentor Pete Seeger, and the ways he reshaped popular music forever.
“Breaking new ground on a story we think we know, Dylan Goes Electric! is a thoughtful, sharp appraisal of the controversial event at Newport and a nuanced, provocative analysis of why it matters.”
You can watch the official teaser trailer here.
Mirko Parlevliet has been reporting on the entertainment industry since 1998 and founded Vital Thrills to provide the latest news on streaming, movies, and TV shows. He previously created the websites ComingSoon, SuperHeroHype, and ShockTillYouDrop.