Last year, director James Mangold said that Benedict Cumberbatch would portray Pete Seeger in the long-gestating Bob Dylan movie A Complete Unknown. Deadline is now reporting that Cumberbatch has to depart the production due to scheduling conflicts and that Edward Norton will assume the role of Seeger. He plays a crucial part in Dylan’s story, especially his groundbreaking electric set at Newport Folk Festival in 1965—which the film focuses on—as he was an early supporter of Dylan and was responsible for inviting him to perform at the festival in the first place.
A Complete Unknown stars Timothée Chalamet as Dylan, while Monica Barbaro has been in talks to portray Joan Baez. Also joining the cast is Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, a university student and artist billed as Dylan’s love interest in the early ’60s. (Dylan famously dated artist Suze Rotolo, who appears on the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, for several years during that same period, but Deadline and IMDB both cite Fanning’s character as Sylvie Russo.)
Production on A Complete Unknown has been pushed from its previous target date, but is slated to begin this March. Director James Mangold also co-wrote the movie alongside Jay Cocks. Meanwhile, Bob Dylan himself is one of the film’s executive producers, and Mangold previously said that Chalamet will do his own singing for the movie.
