Timothée Chalamet To Play Bob Dylan In James Mangold’s ‘Going Electric’
By Ben Pearson/Jan. 6, 2020 4:04 pm EST
The young performer is in negotiations to play Dylan in Going Electric, a new film by Logan and Ford v Ferrari director James Mangold which is set during the mid 1960s, when Dylan transitioned from playing acoustic folk music to plugging in and jamming to some rock ’n roll songs – much to the chagrin of the folk purist fan community.
Mangold has directed a musician biopic once before, with the Joaquin Phoenix starrer Walk the Line back in 2004. That was a pretty traditional story tracing the rise of Johnny Cash and his relationship with fellow musician June Carter; this movie sounds much more concentrated instead of a typical cradle to the grave biopic. It’ll follow Dylan, who’s already blown up as a folk star with the likes of Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, as he decides to put his acoustic aside and go electric for the 50th anniversary of the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965. The response was instantly divisive, with some vocal fans calling Dylan a traitor to the folk scene and others hailing his willingness to expand his sound.
For Mangold, someone who’s previously warned against the effects that outspoken fandoms may have on the future creativity of familiar franchises, this seems like an opportunity to tackle that idea head on, continuing the celebration of creativity and artistry under fire that he laid out in last year’s Ford v Ferrari.
