Timothée Chalamet is in talks to play Bob Dylan in an upcoming biopic about the musician’s early life in music.
Le Mans ’66 filmmaker James Mangold has been tasked with directing the forthcoming film, which is being produced by Searchlight Pictures and is reportedly titled Going Electric.
Deadline reports that Chalamet is the frontrunner to play Dylan in the movie, which will focus on the period when Dylan “was poised to become folk music’s most seminal figure”. The narrative will also depict Dylan’s controversial decision in 1965 to embrace the electric guitar.
The publication also claim that Chalamet is currently learning guitar “so he can familiarise himself with the acoustic and electric guitar”.
Deadline further reports that Dylan has given his blessing to the project and is “working actively with Searchlight and Mangold on the film”. Dylan’s manager Jeff Rosen is also working on the movie as a producer.
No release date has been set as yet.
Mangold has previous with music biopics, having written and directed the acclaimed Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line in 2005.
Dylan has been portrayed on the big screen before, most notably in the 2007 musical drama I’m Not There where various versions of him were played by the likes of Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and the late Heath Ledger.
Back in November, Dylan’s song ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’ was covered by Lana Del Rey and former Walkmen frontman Hamilton Leithauser.