Bob Dylan annotated the script for his forthcoming biopic starring Timothée Chalamet

In an interview with IndieWire, Mangold has revealed that he spent some time with Dylan who has personally annotated a script for the film, and noted during Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast that the film is not a traditional biopic, but rather an ensemble period piece reminiscent of Robert Altman’s work.

“By the way, it’s not really a Bob Dylan biopic,” Mangold said. “Bob has been so supportive of us making it... it’s a kind of ensemble piece about this moment in time, the early ’60s in New York, and this 17-year-old kid with $16 in his pockets hitchhikes his way to New York to meet Woody Guthrie who is in the hospital and is dying of a nerve disease.”

"He sings Woody a song that he wrote for him and befriends Pete Seeger, who is like a son to Woody, and Pete sets him up with gigs at local clubs and there you meet Joan Baez and all these other people who are part of this world, and this wanderer who comes in from Minnesota with a fresh name and a fresh outlook on life, becomes a star, signs to the biggest record company in the world within a year, and three years later, has record sales rivaling The Beatles," he continues.

Discussing his time with Bob Dylan, Mangold says: “I’ve spent several, wonderfully charming, days in [Dylan’s] company, just one-on-one, talking to him. I have a script that’s personally annotated by him and treasured by me. He loves movies. The first time I sat down with Bob, one of the first things he said to me was, ‘I love Copland'" – a reference to Mangold’s 1997 film starring Sylvester Stallone.

The forthcoming biopic, A Complete Unknown, which was originally titled Going Electric will focus on the “upheaval in the folk community” as caused by Dylan’s disruptive sound, Mangold explained.

“It all has tremendous relevance even now because of the way we are all so tribalised with rules about what our music should be, about what our rules are, how we speak, how we express ourselves,” he said. “And Bob from the beginning has always been someone who is always pressing against those boundaries.”

In addition to Chalamet, the film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Elle Fanning, Boyd Holbrook, Monica Barbaro, and Nick Offerman.