Name a singer that's harder to replicate than Bob Dylan… I'll wait. While that would be a daunting task for many, it appears Timothée Chalamet is up to the task and will have to “Handle with Care.”
James Mangold has been all over the news for his Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny trailer and news of his upcoming Star Wars and Swamp Thing flicks (both of which he'll write at the same time!), but he gave one last tidbit about another one of his projects: His Bob Dylan biopic.
Speaking with Collider, Mangold revealed that the Chalamet-led biopic will begin shooting in August of this year and when asked whether Chalamet will be doing his own singing, Mangold responded with an enthusiastic “Of course!”
Now, this is a bold decision. For all we know, Chalamet could be an amazing singer ready to take on this tall task. But replicating such a voice is tricky. Taron Egerton, who played Elton John in Rocketman, sang all of the songs himself as well, and while some renditions like “Border Song” and “Tiny Dancer” had their moments of sounding like the real thing, it often had to be accepted that these versions of the songs are unique to the film and not John's originals. You could argue that Dylan has an even more iconic voice due to the raspiness and nasally nature of it, up there with Johnny Cash. But hey, Joaquin Phoenix had to do in Walk the Line and pulled it off.
Timothée Chalamet is one of the world's rising stars and has an exciting slate coming up. Dune: Part Two is set for a fall release and he's also got Wonka coming out in the winter. In the meantime, you can check out the clip of Mangold speaking with Collider below.