Bob Dylan Biopic Officially Oscar-Bait, Releasing on Christmas

Well, it's official: The new Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, has its eyes on Oscar.

Per Rolling Stone, the film will officially hit theaters on December 25, which has often been the date films hoping to win big during Awards Season have dropped in the past.

The release date is not terribly surprising considering its subject matter, its cast and the fact that biopics have often brought buzz. Two weeks ago, the teaser trailer for A Complete Unknown was released.

Per Searchlight Pictures, "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."

The film also stars Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez and Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo. (Rolling Stone notes that director James Mangold confirmed that Fanning's character "is simply a renamed version of Dylan's real-life girlfriend of that era, Suze Rotolo.")

This Bob Dylan biopic has long been in the works. News of Chalamet cast as Dylan dates back to January 2020. At the time, the biopic was titled Going Electric.

In October 2020, the Dylan biopic was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Cinematographer Phedon Papamichael told Collider then, "I don’t think it’s dead, but it’s a tough one to pull off in a COVID-era because it’s all in small clubs with lots of extras in period costumes, so you’ve got lots of hair and makeup."

In April 2023, director James Mangold confirmed Chalamet would be singing in the film and not lipsync to any Dylan recordings. Mangold further noted the film, which is based on Elijah Wald's 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric, will chronicle Dylan coming to New York in his late teens to pursue music.

The film received some funny press in April when the first piece of footage from filming surfaced. The clip showed Chalamet and Barbaro performing together as Dylan and Baez. When the clip surfaced, the internet didn't necessarily think Chalamet looked like Dylan. Instead, many think the actor looks like a different Rock & Roll Hall of Famer: Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong.

Consequence shared, "Timothée Chalamet as Billie Joe Armstrong on the set of the Bob Dylan biopic."

Meanwhile, Spin wrote, "Hope you had the time of your life playing Bob Dylan in the upcoming biopic A Complete Unknown, Timothée Chalamet."

Bob Dylan: his voice isn't for everyone, but you can't deny his songwriting ability. In his six decades of making music, he's been covered by a huge range of artists, including Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Vedder, Stevie Wonder, Heart with Layne Staley, U2, Elvis Presley, Tim Armstrong of Rancid, Silversun Pickups, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and many more. There's a reason why he recently sold his music publishing for a rumored nine-figure deal.

With that in mind, we thought we'd celebrate his 80th birthday with a list of the best versions of his 80 best songs. So, it's a mix Dylan's versions, and a few of his live performances as well and lots of covers by the aforementioned artists.

And yes, we know that some Dylanologists will be mad that some of the "classics" are missing (we just don't love "Just Like A Woman" or "Mr. Tamborine Man" as much as everyone else). We love some of the material from the second half of his career as much as the music from his more celebrated first half. We love the covers, and we gave them extra points in some cases for introducing his music to younger generations. And with that, let's start with number eighty.