In theaters on December 25 from A24 is ‘Marty Supreme,’ the latest film from director Josh Safdie and loosely inspired by real-life ping pong players who struggled with their own ambition and their sport’s viability in the 1950s.
Since deciding to go their separate ways after making the likes of stress-inducing dramas ‘Good Time’ and ‘Uncut Gems,’ who can say they expected the Safdie siblings to both put out sports-connected dramas months apart?
On the heels of Benny Safdie’s bio-drama ‘The Smashing Machine,’ here comes brother Josh’s ‘Marty Supreme’ which is more of a fictional screwball effort, albeit inspired by real-world ping pong players. But can it find more of an audience than ‘Smashing,’ which has struggled to connect?
Script and Direction
Director Josh Safdie and actor Timothée Chalamet on the set of ‘Marty Supreme’. Photo: A24.
Safdie, working with longtime collaborator Ronald Bronstein (‘Daddy Longlegs’) here brings a similar level of intensity to his latest, albeit the hysteria even further cut with comedy. It’s certainly made for a watchable movie full of great lines and outrageous moments, though it really will ignite debate over the central character, who is clearly talented but also treats people like dirt on his way to find sporting glory.
Safdie continues his ability to find interesting people to cast in both lead and minor roles and he imbues the whole affair with real energy.
Cast and Performances
(L to R): Tyler Okonma, Timothée Chalamet in ‘Marty Supreme’. Photo: A24.
Chalamet is the big draw here, and he’s all quirky power charisma and greed, and manages to make you root for Marty even when he’s being an absolute monster to those he claims to love and beyond.
But there are also great performances littering the film, including Gwyneth Paltrow as a former movie star grasping back towards success, ‘Shark Tank’ veteran Kevin O’Leary as an odious business type who spots an opportunity in Marty.
Final Thoughts
Odessa A’zion in ‘Marty Supreme’. Photo: A24.
‘Marty Supreme’s rhythms (and indeed its main character’s behavior) definitely won’t be to everyone’s taste. But it’s still a fascinating look at someone who puts their own needs over everyone else’s until they can’t.
‘Marty Supreme’ receives 75 out of 100.
Timothée Chalamet in ‘Marty Supreme’. Photo: A24.
What’s the story of ‘Marty Supreme’?
Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.
‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ won the weekend’s box office.
James Cameron’s latest earned $345 globally.
Angel Studios’ David took second place.
Once again, it’s James Cameron’s world, and we’re just living in it.
The filmmaker’s latest trip to the moon of Pandora, ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash,’ heated up the frosty box office, opening top of the charts with $88 million.
And while that figure puts it behind the launch of 2022’s predecessor ‘Avatar: The Way of Water,’ it’s never in the opening that ‘Avatar’ movies really perform, and this new franchise entry is likely to hang around the charts, hoovering up cash.
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The new movie also represents some hefty figures for the filmmaker in particular, representing his biggest global launch (more on that below) and the second-biggest start for a movie this year (squeezed in between fellow Disney stablemates ‘Zootopia 2’ and ‘Lilo & Stitch.’)
Overseas, the new ‘Avatar’ entry took in $257 million, leading to a global launch of $345 million. That is, as mentioned, the best international start for a Cameron movie.
According to Cameron himself, the movie needs to perform in order for him to keep making ‘Avatar’ films:
“It is one metric f**k ton of money, which means we have to make two metric f**k tons of money to make a profit. I have no doubt in my mind that this movie will make money. The question is, does it make enough money to justify doing it again?”
Now, we wait to see what sort of staying power ‘Fire and Ash’ displays…
What else happened at the box office this weekend?
‘David.’ Photo: Angel Studios.
With a big-screen Goliath dominating the chance, it seems somehow fitting that faith-based outfit Angel Studios chose to release ‘David,’ a kid-friendly story inspired by the Biblical tale of the warrior who took on the giant, and spun-off from TV series ‘Young David.’
The movie made $22 million on 3,118 screens, arriving in second place and marking the best three-day opening for Angel.
In fifth place was ‘Zootopia 2’, which is still doing great business. It added $14.5 million in its fourth weekend on release, tallying $282 million domestically to date and a massive $1.27 billion globally, making it the most successful Hollywood release of the year so far.
Finally, opening 10th, Timothée Chalamet-starrer ‘Marty Supreme’ made an impressive debut in limited release, earning $875,000. That doesn’t sound much until you remember it opened on just six screens ahead of an expansion planned for Christmas Day.
That represents $145,933 per theater — the best of the year and highest average since ‘La La Land’ in 2016, according to studio A24.
Timothée Chalamet attends Searchlight Pictures’ ‘A Complete Unknown’ World Premiere on Dec 10, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Preview:
Timothée Chalamet and director James Mangold may re-team for a new movie.
They’re considering new MotoGP heist pic ‘High Side’.
It’s based on an unpublished short story that has studios ready to bid.
If there’s one thing Hollywood loves, it’s discovering a new story –– especially if it’s yet to be published –– and leaping on it as potential source material for a movie.
Per Deadline, Writer Jamie Oliveira’s new short story ‘High Side’ is generating plenty of buzz –– and also attention from a star and director.
By way of update, it is coming together quickly –– Deadline reports that Paramount has snapped up the project with Chalamet and Mangold attached and Oliveira adapting his story.
Oliveira’s story focuses on Billy, a former MotoGP racer, who is haunted by a career-ending crash and a family legacy of abandonment but is drawn back into the world of high-speed risks and extreme danger.
He’s blindsided when his estranged older brother Cole resurfaces — just after their father’s death — with a proposition: use Billy’s talents for something bigger: robbing banks. Cole assembles a mismatched crew, including a woman who becomes Billy’s lover, and they begin knocking over small-town desert banks with speed and precision.
But as the stakes rise, Lennox, an FBI agent who has a complicated history with Cole, closes in as the crew preps its biggest score: a bank job timed with a big motorcycle parade…
Chalamet, who was among the Oscar nominees for ‘A Complete Unknown’ is careful when he picks his projects.
Next up in terms of release is ‘Marty Supreme’, a table tennis comedy drama directed by Josh Safdie, which will be in theaters on December 25th.
And he’s currently back filming the third outing for what is probably his best known role –– Chalamet is at work once again playing Paul Atreides in Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune: Part Three’, which continues his sprawling space opera drawn from Frank Herbert’s work.
Even with a deal in place , this one will need some time to come to fruition. But with Chalamet and Mangold seemingly excited about it, there’s a good chance for forward movement.
Timothée Chalamet attends Searchlight Pictures’ ‘A Complete Unknown’ World Premiere on Dec 10, 2024 in Los Angeles.
‘Dune’ director Denis Villeneuve is considering Robert Pattinson for the third movie.
Right now, no formal offer has been made.
The likes of Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and Florence Pugh would return.
Having changed his mind about taking a break from the rugged, wind-whipped dunes of Arrakis following ‘Dune: Part Two,’ Denis Villeneuve has actively begun putting the pieces together for a third ‘Dune’ outing.
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It’s not entirely surprising, since The first ‘Dune’ released day-and-date on streaming in 2021 amid the pandemic, earned $410 million globally, while 2024’s follow-up brought in $714.6 million globally.
But while Villeneuve looked to be pivoting to another big movie, he’s since confirmed that his focus is now the next ‘Dune,’ likely ‘Dune: Messiah,’ adapting the next book in Frank Herbert’s sprawling novel series.
The actor, known for the ‘Twilight’ franchise and a host of other work since (including the title role in ‘The Batman’) is the subject of interest from Villeneuve and backers Legendary for a key role.
We’d be remiss at this point, if we didn’t point out that this is far from a done deal; in fact, no offer has been made. Yet The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Pattinson is circling the role of the chief villain in the film, one that is possibly Scytale from the Herbert stories.
In case you’ve never cracked the books, he’s a Tleilaxu Face Dancer who participates in the conspiracy to topple the rule of Paul Atreides.
The new ‘Dune’ would continue the story of Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides, who has a powerful and dark destiny to become ruler of the various worlds.
Villeneuve has been clear, however, that this won’t be the third part of a trilogy.
This is what the director said last year:
“First, it’s important that people understand that for me, it was really a diptych. It was really a pair of movies that will be the adaptation of the first book. That’s done and that’s finished. If I do a third one, which is in the writing process, it’s not like a trilogy. It’s strange to say that, but if I go back there, it’s to do something that feels different and has its own identity.”
Villeneuve has been working on the script with regular collaborator Jon Spaihts.
Given where the story goes, it’s seemingly a given that stars Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh and Zendaya will all return, since Paul Atreides, Princess and Irulan and Chani all feature in the ongoing narrative, not the least because their love/power triangle will be a key part of it.
Also likely to come back? We’d expect Anya Taylor-Joy‘s Alia Atreides: Paul’s sister, a powerful figure in the Bene Gesserit, who was in just one scene in ‘Dune: Part Two,’ but has an expanded role to play going forward.
Who else will –– spoiler alert! –– be back for the third ‘Dune’ movie?
Jason Momoa in ‘Dune’. Photo: Warner Bros.
We’re putting this one in its own section, since it constitutes a spoiler and we don’t want anyone who hasn’t read the ‘Dune’ books to have their enjoyment curtailed.
During a recent interview, Jason Momoa revealed that his sword master and mentor Duncan Idaho would be back for the new movie, despite his character dying in the first one.
“I’m making a comeback. You heard it first, right here with you, baby! Well, I’m not sure if I’m going to get in trouble or not, but it’s the same thing like ‘Game of Thrones’, you know what I mean? If you didn’t read the books, it’s not my fault, right? Yeah, there’s going to be… I’m going to be coming back.”
For the record, and again, spoiler alert: in one of the later books of Frank Herbert’s series, Duncan comes back as a clone.
Pattinson was most recently on screens in Bong Joon Ho’s new sci-fi satire ‘Mickey 17’ about a man who serves on a spaceship who is replaced with a clone of himself every time he dies on board. The film was not a success at the box office.
He’s also worked on Lynne Ramsey’s new comedy horror drama ‘Die, My Love,’ opposite Jennifer Lawrence and has filmed romantic movie ‘The Drama.’
And, of course, there is his other big Warners job, Matt Reeves’ long-gestating ‘The Batman’ sequel, which should kick off filming at the end of this year, though it has been through several delays already while Reeves works on the script.
But if Pattinson is able to squeeze in a trip to Arrakis –– assuming he does lock into the movie –– this summer, that would mean him being on set for three giant movies this year alone.
When will the third ‘Dune’ movie touch down in theaters?
Neither Warner Bros. nor Legendary has made any statement about the release date for the new movie.
While Warners had been holding a December 2026 slot for a Villeneuve movie, but that would seem a very tough turnaround for something on the level of a ‘Dune,’ especially when production is only scheduled for later this summer. But watch this space!
(L to R) Edward Norton and Monica Barbaro star in ‘A Complete Unknown’.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of sitting down in-person with Edward Norton and Monica Barbaro to talk about their work on ‘A Complete Unknown’, playing Pete Seeger and Joan Baez respectively, learning to sing and play instruments like their characters, Seeger and Baez’s relationships with Dylan, working with Timothée Chalamet, and what audiences will learn about Dylan’s legacy.
You can read the full interviews below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews.
Moviefone: To begin with, Edward, can you talk about your approach to playing Pete Seeger and how challenging was it to learn how to play his instruments the same way he played them?
Edward Norton: The music, and fortunately this enormous body of recorded music and a lot of what Pete Seeger did, he did live, and so you get to hear his music, but you also get to hear, he talked to the crowd a lot and his vocal demeanor, his kind of odd formalism, and it was a great access point and there is an amazing amount of footage of him. That was a good place to start, there’s an abundant, recorded visual and auditory library of Pete. I think until you start trying to unpack what he’s doing musically; you don’t realize how much virtuosity he had as a banjo and a guitar player. He’s a monster of a musician, and I’ve played guitar a long time, but I realized in many ways that it was going to be very difficult on the banjo because there’s a lot of modern professional banjo players who don’t even play in the style that Pete Seeger played in. He had this special long-necked, you wouldn’t call it a baritone banjo, but it was a long neck banjo, and he played a picking style that’s very old-fashioned and not a lot of people do anymore. It was an interesting process to navigate the music with our great music supervisor, and James (Mangold) and teachers that I had. It was a challenge is the short answer. That was probably the thing I felt the most. Not anxious, but you really want to get that right. You don’t want to not do justice to what amazing musicians these people were.
Monica Barbaro attends Searchlight Pictures’ ‘A Complete Unknown’ World Premiere on Dec 10, 2024 in Los Angeles.
MF: Monica, I understand you had an opportunity to talk to Joan Baez before you began shooting. How did that help inform your performance and did it put you at ease about portraying her on screen?
Monica Barbaro: Well, I was at a place, we had already started filming, and I just kept having dreams about her. It’d be specifically dreams where we were hanging out, and we kept having a great time. I’d wake up in a good mood, and so I was like, “I think subconsciously something’s telling me that it’s going to be okay, and you should reach out.” I knew at that point that Ed had spoken to her, he knows her, and all I’ve heard is that she’s a very creatively generous person, and so I felt emboldened to reach out. I felt like, if it were Joan, she would reach out. So, I was like, “Okay, this is an exercise also in preparing for the bit of confidence that I think she has.” We just had a beautiful conversation, and she was very generous with her time, and she answered my questions, and I can safely say her memoirs and her documentaries are all very honest. There was nothing that I felt like she was withholding. So that was just wonderful to confirm that the research I had been doing was on the right path, and what she had offered up was true to her experience.
MF: Monica, can you talk about the challenges of learning and preparing for all the musical sequences and really matching the sound of your voice to hers?
MB: I think I’ve studied her so intensely that all I hear are the differences. I got to work with a lovely vocal coach and what we talked about was really trying to capture some of the more iconic qualities of her voice, the things that everyone says when they describe her voice, like she has this beautiful, tight vibrato, this sort of angelic sound, which I think comes also from singing in high keys, that I at the time couldn’t sing in. So just getting to the point of having comfortability with those qualities was the thing that I felt like would at least sell that believability early on. I didn’t play guitar either, so I had a great guitar teacher who just doubled down on teaching me her finger picking style. We just tried to formulate some version of Joan with tons of hours of training.
MF: Monica, can you talk about how Baez and Dylan’s relationship is depicted in the film and what it was like working on that with Timothée Chalamet?
MB: I mean, I’m such a fan of his work. I am an even bigger fan now. He’s an incredible actor, and knowing he was a part of this project was a part of what made me want to do it. Also, James Mangold, of course, and the subject matter. But I had complete trust in him. I mean, I had heard some of his recordings as we were preparing, and so I had even duetted with his voice as Bob. But when we met up and had a music rehearsal, I just was completely blown away. He’s an incredible actor, he worked so hard, and to me, he really got a lot of that Bob Dylan essence, and we could just, I think, kind of trust each other’s work, and we could show up as our characters and sort of let the scene unfold. We didn’t spend a lot of time sitting down and figuring out who we thought they were or what we thought this meant. We took our sort of siloed processes and bridged them in the moment in the scenes that you see. James was an incredible advocate for us and leader in that process, and it was just a beautiful, very present experience.
MF: Finally, Edward, can you talk about how Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan’s friendship is depicted in the film and what you hope audiences learn about both of their legacies?
EN: I think in a funny way, I never want to impose an idea. I think an audience should get to have their own relationship with it. Here’s my point. A great filmmaker will leave people with a lot to resolve for themselves and not instruct emotionally, morally or anything. I think James’ done something quite beautiful in this, in that he lets Dylan be Dylan and Pete be Pete, and they have different kinds of integrity. Joan Baez has her own. I think he gives you this portrait of the different types of integrity that a person can have, and he lets them collide with each other. Different people are going to feel very different ways about it all and then go through the prism of their own experiences and their own mentors and their own people they think they did something for. If you get that right, it transcends the fact that these people were musicians. It can be about teachers or anyone who had a mentor or anyone who had an ally who they went sideways with. I think it’s the paradox of people being able to love each other and admire each other and get into cross-purposes with each other that makes it kind of interesting. I think that there was a moment that the film depicts that a lot of people who have great talent and great passion kind of collided with each other. This thing came up and out in the Zeitgeist through Dylan, and then it changed. You know what I mean? I love the way the film sort of almost, it’s like the Beatles breaking up. Everything can’t last. Maybe if anything, it’s like, it’s just the observation of that fact that is poignant.
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What is the plot of ‘A Complete Unknown’?
Set in the influential New York music scene of the early 60s, ‘A Complete Unknown follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s (Timothée Chalamet) meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts – his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation – culminating in his groundbreaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.
(L to R) Boyd Holbrook, Ed Norton, Timothée Chalamet, Monica Barbaro, and Elle Fanning attend Searchlight Pictures’ ‘A Complete Unknown’ World Premiere on Dec 10, 2024 in Los Angeles.
‘A Complete Unknown,’ which stars Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, chronicles the music icons early days, from his initial arrival in New York to his taking the folk scene by storm with his powerful lyrics and catchy tunes.
Directed by James Mangold, who previously brought the world the likes of ‘Walk the Line’ (about fellow music sensation Johnny Cash) and ‘Ford Vs. Ferrari’ (the true life tale of the clash between the car companies around the famed Le Mans race), the new movie sees Dylan shaking up his act by going electric and siring rock as the voice of a generation –– defining one of the most transformative moments in 20th century music.
The movie has already made a strong entry into the awards race, and Searchlight Pictures held a virtual press conference with Mangold, Chalamet, Fanning, Barbaro, Holbrook and Norton.
Here are 10 things we learned at that press conference, edited for clarity and length. ‘A Complete Unknown’ will be in theaters on December 25th.
1. Mangold was Transfixed by the Real Story the Film is Based On
Director James Mangold attends Searchlight Pictures’ ‘A Complete Unknown’ World Premiere on Dec 10, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Mangold and Jay Cocks adapted the script from Elijah Wald’s book ‘Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan and the Night that Split the Sixties.’
James Mangold: It came about because there was a wonderful book by Elijah Wald that covered this period and did a really beautiful job of bracketing this moment, this convulsion that happened in Newport 65 and what led up to it. Then as Jay Cocks and I were developing the script, it occurred to me that this fable really should begin with Bob’s arrival in New York. I found it almost like a fairy tale. This idea of a young man, almost a man with no name or changing his name upon arrival with a few bucks in his pocket, carrying a guitar case and a Moleskine notebook with some scrawling in it, landing at the bedside of his hero in a VA hospital in New Jersey to sing him his song. He’s traveled all this way to sing. I mean, that this is a true story blows my mind.
With a few years between landing the role and starting work on the film, the actor had time to prepare to play Dylan.
Timothée Chalamet: It was daunting because it is Bob Dylan. At the beginning of the process, I wasn’t in the Church of Bob the way I am now, the way I’m a humble disciple now. The years I got to prepare for this role is unlike the time I’ve had for any other role. So at some point it stopped becoming work and it just became a process of osmosis and just living in the material, living in the world of the sixties. When it came time to shoot with Edward and Monica and Elle and Boyd, we were constantly throwing around little facts or tidbits or video clips or letters we were finding about these characters from the period.
3. Monica Barbaro Also Threw Herself into Preparing to Play Joan Baez
As with Chalamet, the ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ actor had a lot of work to get ready to be Baez.
Monica Barbaro: When Jim cast me in the film, I had five months to learn to sing and play guitar, and that did not feel like a long time. So, I was very anxious. Yet during the strike, we weren’t allowed to work with our coaches necessarily, but it was this cool time to take the training and process the work and be a little bit more solo with it, stretch and try things on my own. I think that was around the time when I started working on singing and playing at the same time, which was just a whole other level of musical proficiency that I just did not have and did not understand. Sometimes it’s like patting your head and rubbing your stomach.
4. Edward Norton Was a Big Fan of Dylan, Seeger and co. Before Taking on the Film
Norton’s familiarity with the main players was a big plus in his own preparation.
Edward Norton: I’ve marinated in the Church of Bob for my whole adult life. If you’re someone who came up in New York City in the theatre with even a passing interest in human affairs, Pete Seeger was a paragon. He was a folk singer who cleaned up the Hudson River. You knew about Pete Seeger. My first job as a waiter was right next to a restaurant that was in Pete Seeger’s house, and I used to go there all the time. I’ve played guitar for many years, and I know this music. So there’s the preparation that wasn’t… I didn’t walk into it happily naive to the ethos of it or the essence of it. Banjo was a new animal for me. They say dying is easy, comedy is hard. Well, I think guitar is easy and banjo is hard. So that was fun. That was a lot of fun.
5. Elle Fanning Had to Get Creative Given Her More Fictionalized Role
Elle Fanning attends Searchlight Pictures’ ‘A Complete Unknown’ World Premiere on Dec 10, 2024 in Los Angeles.
With Sylvie based on a real-life figure, but with more flexibility, Fanning had different challenges.
Elle Fanning: You can do the facts and the searching, but really your bible is the script, and working with your actors and talking to Jim and carving out a story and a cinematic experience that people are going to care about. I felt like I cared so much for her on the page, and her emotion just jumped out at me. So I wanted to do justice of honoring know Suze and Bob’s relationship, but also making sure that that emotional weight was there in the part that I had.
6. Boyd Holbrook Was Intimidated Playing Johnny Cash For a Big Reason
Boyd Holbrook attends Searchlight Pictures’ ‘A Complete Unknown’ World Premiere on Dec 10, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Holdbrook had good reason to be nervous, since Mangold had already shepherded Joaquin Phoenix to an Oscar nomination playing Cash in ‘Walk the Line.’
Boyd Holbrook: Yeah, it was kind of daunting in the beginning when Jim asked me to do it. But following Joaquin’s great performance, it was daunting in a way, but then as I understood what the part was about and its functionality in Bob’s life, it was a really exciting challenge. I didn’t play and sing at the same time. I think I lied to you, Jim. I think I told you I did! But there’s this extraordinary pressure that bottlenecks you down into the day of shooting where you have to figure this out. So for me it was really exciting to do it in a fresh way, and to see what this other version of Johnny Cash was, and a mentor to Bob. Maybe not a mentor, but a comrade.
7. Mangold Hopes Audiences Seek Out Big Screens to See the Movie
Though so many movies go to streaming these days and something such as ‘A Complete Unknown’ might not be on the scale, of, say ‘Gladiator II,’ the director feels it deserves to be seen on a big screen.
Mangold: I want all our movies to be seen on the big screen. That’s why we make them. I’ve been very lucky so far, particularly movies like this where it’s getting harder and harder to get them made and going out theatrically. But it is a singular experience, and I think that this movie has a kind of scale to it that really asks for that kind of experience. The enveloping sound of these concerts, whether intimate or gigantic, is just our sound team did awesome work on this movie, and it’s an anamorphic film, so it’s wide screen and just looks amazing on the big screen.
8. Part of Chalamet’s Road to Dylan Included Visiting the Musician’s Old Haunts
The actor didn’t just dig into Dylan’s musical side –– he also made pilgrimages to where he was born in Minnesota.
Chalamet: They were hugely informative. I don’t think they were informative in an academic sense. I wasn’t trying to excavate the exact places he walked or understand what homework was assigned on a specific day. I really just wanted to put myself in the environment, the weather, the roads, the iron ore of it all that gives him that grit in his voice, that to this day makes it so surprising and impressive that he wrote songs like “North Country Blues,” or “Rocks and Gravel” and stuff that was beyond a 19– or 20–year–old at the time. Again, it was a process of osmosis. It wasn’t anything prescriptive.
9. Chalamet Sung Most of the Songs Live in the Film
Though Mangold and his team had crafted the usual pre-recorded soundtrack for Dylan and co., Chalamet had his director’s confidence to perform on set.
Mangold: We laid down what’ll be a soundtrack album full of music in the studio. But then we started shooting and the first scene we did, you guys have seen the movie, the first scene with singing in it that we did was the one in which he sings a song for to Woody Guthrie in the hospital. Timmy came to me and said, “I just want to do it.” There was this whole moment on set where people behind the scenes are, “Well, the shots will never cut. He’ll be singing a different tempo from one shot to the next and we can’t get a good recording here.” I have my hats off to Timmy because he was the one who was like, “I just want to do it.” And he did. All I did was run interference for him in the sense of going, “Whatever happens, we can fix it later.” We didn’t have to fix a thing.
10. Fanning was Blown Away Hearing Chalamet Play for the First Time
Elle Fanning wasn’t sure what to expect when it came to Chalamet playing Dylan, but he really nailed the role.
Fanning: The first day on set for me was when he’s singing, “A Hard Rain’s Going to Fall.” I am an audience member in that scene. I don’t have any lines or anything, but I remember I had such an anticipation, like butterflies. You could feel like this bubbling anticipation. The audience knew what they were about to see, but I didn’t know what to expect. Obviously I know he’s a brilliant actor, and I was, ‘Of course he’s going to knock it out of the park.’ He gave us a full concert.
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What is the plot of ‘A Complete Unknown’?
Set in the influential New York music scene of the early 60s, ‘A Complete Unknown follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s (Timothée Chalamet) meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts – his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation – culminating in his groundbreaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.
Opening in theaters on December 25th is the new biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’, which chronicles the early life and career of legendary musician Bob Dylan.
Director James Mangold delivers a brilliant and vibrant biopic about legendary musician Bob Dylan that completely captures his complex mystic and iconic music. Mangold wisely focuses on the early part of Dylan’s career, beginning with his arrival in New York, his rise in the folk music scene, and culminating with his controversial choice to “go electric” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
Timothée Chalamet gives a career-defining performance as Dylan and is completely hypnotic in the role. The actor completely embodies the character with the awkward cool and determination of Dylan and is remarkable in the musical sequences, so much so that at times you forget you are not actually watching Dylan. Chalamet’s performance is supported by excellent turns from both Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, and Ed Norton as folk musician Pete Seeger.
The movie begins in 1963 by introducing us to an awkward young song writer, who has just arrived in New York City and has already adopted the persona of Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet). Dylan’s first move is to visit his hero, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy), who is dying in a local hospital. Dylan performs a song he has written for Woody and impresses folk legend Pete Seeger (Ed Norton).
Seeger soon introduces Dylan on the popular New York folk music scene, and while trying to get his first album produced, meets artist Sylvie Russo (Susan Rotolo in real life) played by Elle Fanning, and young musician Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro). Dylan soon begins having relationships with both women, while his musical career takes off.
Confused by his new success and being labeled “the voice of his generation” by the media, Dylan seeks support from fellow musician Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook). Dylan continues to struggle with his success and pushes to create new music that doesn’t fit into the mold of what Seeger and others want for him. It all culminates with the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where Dylan is the headliner and famously causes a riot by using an electric guitar.
Based on author Elijah Wald’s ‘Dylan Goes Electric’, the script by Mangold and Jay Cocks is excellent and the choice to focus on the first three years of Dylan’s career rather than a life-spanning biopic was a smart one. Mangold, of course, is no stranger to rock n’ roll biopics having made the Johnny Cash film ‘Walk the Line,’ but in my opinion this is a far superior movie and putting ‘Logan’ aside, may be the best work of Mangold’s impressive career.
Focusing on this specific period allows the director to really examine how Robert Zimmerman became Bob Dylan, and his impact on music and society. 1960s New York comes alive in a vibrant way, and the images shown reflect what we’ve seen of Dylan in that time. Mangold is also able to spotlight the folk music movement of the early 60s, Dylan’s role in that, and how controversial it was in that community when Dylan “betrayed” them and went electric.
Obviously, if you are Dylan fan you will love the music as it is mostly his, with a few traditional songs and music from Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash thrown in. All the big Dylan hits of that time are included such as ‘Masters of War’, ‘Blowing in the Wind’, ‘Maggie’s Farm’, and of course, ‘Like a Rolling Stone’. The musical performances are fantastic, and the actors, who sang themselves, remarkably sound like the people they are portraying, especially Chalamet and Barbaro.
Full disclosure: I’m a self-proclaimed Bob Dylan expert. I’ve personally been studying his music as a fan for the last 30 years and have seen him live in concert easily over 20 times. So, I was ready to be quite critical of the movie, but to be honest, I fell so in love with the characters, the performances, the music and Mangold’s direction, that I really left the theater with very little to complain about.
However, if I had to be critical, at 2 hours and 21 minutes, the movie is a little long. It didn’t bother me much, but I think you could have a much tighter film if you cut 10 minutes or so from the run time. The easiest way to do this would be to cut one or two of the musical numbers. Look, I love ‘Masters of War’, but do we need to see Dylan perform it twice in the same movie?
Also, I understand having Norton perform one of Pete Seeger’s songs at the beginning of the movie to establish who that character is, but also watching him perform at the Newport Festival towards the finale seemed unnecessary. My guess would be that Mangold got a little too precious with the musical performances and didn’t want to “cut any of his babies”, and I totally get that, and in the long run doesn’t really hurt the movie much.
My other small critique would be that the film completely skips Dylan’s seminal 1965 tour of England, which is where he was first introduced to electric guitars. The movie makes mention of the trip before and after it happens, but never took the time to explore it and I have a theory as to why Mangold made that choice.
D.A. Pennebaker’s groundbreaking 1967 documentary ‘Don’t Look Back’ chronicles in real time Dylan’s tour of England, and my guess would be that Mangold did not want to retread that territory. If that is the case, then that was a smart choice, as one of my issues with director Michael Mann’s boxing biopic ‘Ali’ was that the third act was a shot for shot remake of the Oscar-winning documentary ‘When We Were Kings’.
Mangold has really assembled a wonderful ensemble cast but obviously the movie hinges on Timothée Chalamet’s performance. The young actor who has been excellent in films like ‘Call Me by Your Name’, ‘Wonka’ and the ‘Dune’ series gives his best work to date as Dylan. I would imagine this was a daunting character for Chalamet to play and he completely nails it from beginning to end.
The actor perfectly embodies Dylan, his awkward coolness, and his legendary mystic. His musical performances are astounding and the best compliment I can give him is to say that there were times I forgot I was watching an actor and thought I was really watching Dylan. It is easily one of the best male performances of this year and I would be shocked if he doesn’t at least get nominated for an Oscar, and depending on who else is in the competition, I would imagine he’ll be the frontrunner.
Also deserving of an Oscar nomination is Monica Barbaro who is incredible as Joan Baez. Not only does the actress look like Baez, but she also sounds exactly like her when she is singing and has excellent chemistry with Chalamet. Their love story, for me, was the heart of the movie. Elle Fanning, who plays Dylan’s other love interest Sylvie, has a bit of a thankless role, as I did feel her character was given short shrift by the script. Regardless, the actress is a ray of sunshine in all her scenes and has wonderful chemistry with Chalamet too.
Ed Norton could also end up earning an Oscar nomination for his work, as the actor gives a quiet yet strong performance as Dylan’s mentor and eventual rival, Pete Seeger. It’s also worth mentioning Boyd Holbrook’s fun performance as Johnny Cash, but with two short scenes, it is basically a glorified cameo. Finally, Scoot McNairy has the difficult job of playing an afflicted Woody Guthrie, and while his performance didn’t quite work for me, the actor made the most of the situation.
In the end, ‘A Complete Unknown’ is probably the best version of a Bob Dylan movie we could ever ask for. And it’s important to remember that Bob Dylan isn’t even a real person … he’s a mysterious character that a young Robert Zimmerman created in New York in the early 60s. Given that, director James Mangold has created a biopic that both honors the legend of Bob Dylan, while examining the real man behind the persona, without ruining the mystic that the artist has spent so many decades cultivating.
I expect the film will receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, and possibly a nomination for Best Director as well. In a year that saw disappointing biopics of both Bob Marley (‘Bob Marley: One Love‘) and Amy Winehouse (‘Back to Black‘), I can safely say that ‘A Complete Unknown’ is the best biopic about a popular musician we’ve seen in recent years and features a transcending and career-defining performance from Timothée Chalamet.
‘A Complete Unknown’ receives 9 out of 10 stars.
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What is the plot of ‘A Complete Unknown’?
Set in the influential New York music scene of the early 60s, ‘A Complete Unknown follows 19-year-old Minnesota musician Bob Dylan’s (Timothée Chalamet) meteoric rise as a folk singer to concert halls and the top of the charts – his songs and mystique becoming a worldwide sensation – culminating in his groundbreaking electric rock and roll performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965.
Timothée Chalamet is in final talks to star in ‘Marty Supreme’.
It would follow the career of ping pong pro Marty Reisman.
Josh Safdie co-wrote the movie and will direct.
In the last couple of years, we’ve gotten used to seeing Timothée Chalamet as fantastical characters –– ‘Dune’s troubled Paul Atreides or the cheerier chocolatier who lends his name to ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ prequel ‘Wonka’.
Yet for a potential new film, as reported by Variety, he’ll be tackling a real-life sports hero, albeit in a sport that is rarely brought to screens.
Chalamet is now in final negotiations to star in and co-produce a new movie about ping pong pro Marty Reisman, called ‘Marty Supreme’.
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Who was Marty Reisman?
Marty Reisman in the documentary ‘Fact or Fiction: The Life & Times of a Ping Pong Hustler’.
Reisman was a table tennis champion who started his career as a hustler in Manhattan, playing for bets and prize money.
He won 22 major ping pong titles from 1946 to 2002 and won five bronze medals at the World Table Tennis Championships.
At 67, he competed in the United States National Hardbat Championship and became the oldest player to win an open national competition in a racket sport. He was known as the “wizard of table tennis” and even opened for the Harlem Globetrotters with his ping pong comedy routine.
In 1974, Reisman published an autobiography titled ‘The Money Player: The Confessions of America’s Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler.’ He also inspired a 2014 television documentary titled ‘Fact or Fiction: The Life and Times of a Ping Pong Hustler.’ Reisman died in 2012.
Safdie is best known for working with his brother Benny Safdie on films including ‘Good Time’ and ‘Gems’, though the brothers have parted ways to work on their own movies (Benny is in production on MMA biopic ‘The Smashing Machine’ with Dwayne Johnson in the lead.
The Safdies still work together to produce other projects, including a Paul Reubens documentary.
A24 is backing ‘Marty Supreme’, and made it official via social media:
Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in director James Mangold’s ‘A Complete Unknown.’ Photo: James Mangold’s Twitter Account.
The actor has most recently worked on James Mangold’s ‘A Complete Unknown’, about the younger days of singer/songwriter Bob Dylan (Chalamet plays Dylan).
Beyond that, ‘Marty Supreme’ would appear to be the only project that has been announced, though given how in demand the young performer is, there’s every chance that several other potential movies are in development.
Chalamet is also likely to reunite with Villeneuve for the planned third ‘Dune’ outing, ‘Dune Messiah’, though that is still at a very early stage and the director may well make another movie or two before he returns to the world of the sci-fi story.
The next chapter in Paul Atreides’ story takes shape in ‘Dune: Part Two’, and is now available on VOD, with the home release coming in May 2024.
Based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, the follow-up to the 2021 ‘Dune’ was originally slated to release on October 20, 2023. However, the film was delayed due to the WGA and SAG strike. The film finally premiered on March 1, 2024. ‘Dune: Part Two’ received positive reviews from critics and audiences alike.
With ‘Dune’ taking home five Academy Awards, including Best Visual Effects, Best Cinematography, Best Orignal Score, and Best Production Design, it is very possible to see ‘Dune: Part Two’ snagging nominations for the 2025 awards season.
Did you miss the epic sci-fi sequel on the big screen? You’re in luck. The movie is now available on VOD for rent or purchase, so you can watch it from the comfort of your couch, no sandworms necessary.
‘Dune: Part Two’ has a runtime of 2 hours and 47 minutes. As of April 16, 2024, the movie was made available to rent for $24.99 or purchase for $29.99 on VOD platforms such as Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube, and Vudu. Apple TV includes over 100 minutes of bonus content included in the digital version. Take a deeper look at the character of Dune, the Freman language, sandworm-riding, costumes, music, and more.
With ‘Dune: Part Two’ raking in over $637 million at the global box office, what is next for ‘Dune’? In a conversation with Entertainment Weekly in 2021, Director Denis Villeneuve says he’s “always envisioned three movies.” to fully round out the Paul Atreides story. He has also mentioned that a script for the third movie is in the works.
“I always envisioned three movies. It’s not that I want to do a franchise, but this is ‘Dune,’ and ‘Dune’ is a huge story. In order to honor it, I think you would need at least three movies. That would be the dream. To follow Paul Atreides and his full arc would be nice.”
Filming a sci-fi epic is no easy task, and the director mentions the possibility of taking a break between ‘Dune: Part Two’ and ‘Dune: Messiah’. However, the third film, ‘Dune: Messiah’ is in active development.
‘Dune: Part Two’ will be released on DVD, Blu-Ray, and 4K UHD on May 14th. Collectors can also look forward to a 2-film collection from Target. The home release will feature over an hour of bonus content:
Watch the final trailer for ‘Dune: Part Two’ below:
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The official synopsis for ‘Dune: Part Two’ is below:
Paul Atreides unites with Chani and the Fremen while seeking revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the universe, he must prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.
Denis Villeneuve is officially developing ‘Dune: Messiah’.
He’s also attached to adapt ‘Nuclear War: A Scenario’.
There’s are other projects also on his To Do list.
As ‘Dune: Part Two’ continues to do well at the box office (it’s the highest-grossing movie of the year so far, with $637 million globally), talk has naturally turned to what co-writer/director Denis Villeneuve might be considering as a follow-up.
The filmmaker has plenty of options on the table, with a development schedule that includes both a third ‘Dune’ outing, a historical epic featuring Egyptian queen Cleopatra and an adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s sci-fi tome ‘Rendezvous with Rama’.
Now, if Legendary has it’s ways, the director will be focusing on getting ‘Dune: Messiah’ made and adding another possible film, adapting Annie Jacobsen’s book ‘Nuclear War: A Scenario’.
“I always envisioned three movies. It’s not that I want to do a franchise, but this is ‘Dune’, and ‘Dune’ is a huge story. In order to honor it, I think you would need at least three movies. That would be the dream. To follow Paul Atreides and his full arc would be nice.”
Since then, he’s gone on the record to say the script for the third movie is in the works (with Villeneuve once more working alongside Jon Spaihts) but has also commented on the possibility of taking a break between ‘Part Two’ and ‘Messiah’. Which is not a surprise given the heavy challenges of bringing these giant films to light.
Still, Deadline’s story on Legendary purchasing the rights to ‘Nuclear War: A Scenario’ for Villeneuve to work on does mention that ‘Dune: Messiah’ is in active development, so there’s every chance it could be his next film (or after ‘Rendezvous with Rama’ if that really goes ahead) and ‘Nuclear War’ will wait in the wings.
Jacobsen’s tome recently hit the New York Times bestseller lists. The book explores a ticking-clock scenario about what would happen in the event of a nuclear war, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who built the weapons and have been privy to the response plans and have been responsible for those decisions should they need to be made.
Quite what Villeneuve –– who will produce the adaptation with producing partner Tanya Lapointe –– will do with the subject if he ends up writing or directing it, remains to be seen. In the wake of ‘Oppenheimer’s success at the box office and more recently at the Oscars, we could certainly see it turning into a cautionary tale about use of weapons of mass destruction in such a politically volatile era as our own.
And it’s not like the filmmakers doesn’t have experience with nuclear weapons –– the atomic weapons of House Atreides factored into the plot of ‘Dune: Part Two’. So you know he can deliver bang for Legendary’s buck.
