Bob Dylan has insisted that his biopic must have one totally inaccurate moment in it
22 November 2024, 11:19
Bob Dylan lives up to his Jokerman reputation once again.
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If you set aside the quirky I'm Not There, Bob Dylan's upcoming movie A Complete Unknown is the first major biopic of the legendary singer-songwriter.
The film is being directed by James Mangold, who gave Dylan's friend and sometime collaborator Johnny Cash the movie treatment back in 2005 with Walk The Line.
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Mangold walked the line in a pretty straight direction for his Cash film, generally sticking to the facts apart from the odd tweaking of history for dramatic licence.
But for A Complete Unknown, which stars Dune's Timothée Chalamet as Dylan, he's been forced to include one moment that is completely inaccurate for the sake of it – and that's because Bob has insisted on it.
Dylan is known for being a bit of a mischief-and-myth maker when it comes to his own story, with the odd "alternative fact" sneaking its way into his acclaimed memoir Chronicles: Volume One.
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When Mangold, who co-wrote the script with Jay Cocks, protested that fans would be upset by the fabrication, Dylan set him straight.
"What do you care what other people think?" Dylan apparently told Mangold.
Mangold told Rolling Stone that Bob took "obvious pleasure in obfuscation and distortion" and added: "He's such a troublemaker."
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It appears as though Dylan has been hands-on with the script for the film.
Mangold said: "I felt like Bob just wanted to know what I was up to. 'Who is this guy? Is he a s**thead? Does he get it?’. I think the normal questions anyone asks when they're throwing themselves in league with someone."
Chalamet added: “Jim has an annotated Bob script lying around somewhere. I'll beg him to get my hands on it. He'll never give it to me."
