James Mangold is currently dedicated to his Bob Dylan biopic, “A Complete Unknown.” Despite his experience directing parts of the X-Men and Indiana Jones franchises, Mangold is not applying that approach to this project.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Mangold addressed why star Timothée Chalamet, who plays Dylan, is seen in the teaser with a note from Johnny Cash. The interviewer noted that this sparked hopes of a “cinematic-universe, multiverse return-of-Joaquin Phoenix situation.”
Mangold quickly dismissed this idea. He stated, “I don’t do multiverses. But beyond that, Johnny Cash was like, 30. I love Joaquin, but he’s not 30, or whatever Johnny was at this moment. They’re both young people in that moment in life. It’s weird that I’ve even worked in the world of IP entertainment because I don’t like multi-movie universe-building. I think it’s the enemy of storytelling. The death of storytelling. It’s more interesting to people the way the Legos connect than the way the story works in front of us.”
He continued, “For me, the goal becomes, always, ‘What is unique about this film, and these characters?’ Not making you think about some other movie or some Easter egg or something else, which is all an intellectual act, not an emotional act. You want the movie to work on an emotional level.”
“A Complete Unknown” doesn’t have a release date yet, but Mangold hints it could come out as soon as December. The film stars Chalamet as Bob Dylan, Elle Fanning as his girlfriend Sylvie Russo (a renamed version of Dylan’s real-life girlfriend Suze Rotolo), Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, and Edward Norton as Pete Seeger.
