Timothee Chalamet is reportedly set to play a young Bob Dylan in James Mangold's biopic.
According to editors at Deadline, bosses at Searchlight Pictures have secured a deal with Mangold, who recently helmed racing drama Ford v Ferrari, to direct the Call Me by Your Name actor as a young Dylan in a movie which focuses on the music icon's transition from folk to rock 'n' roll in the 1960s.
The Like a Rolling Stone singer, who sparked outrage when he switched from acoustic to electric guitar, is reportedly working with Mangold and the studio on the film, which is being referred to as Going Electric, and will serve as an executive producer alongside his longtime manager Jeff Rosen.
Deadline reports that the Oscar-nominated actor is still in negotiations and is expected to film Going Electric after he concludes his run in the stage play 4000 Miles at London's Old Vic theatre in May. He is apparently taking guitar lessons to brush up his skills, but it is currently unclear if he will be singing Dylan classics in the movie, although the music rights have been secured.
Mangold, who previously directed Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, has rewritten a script by Jay Cocks which was inspired by Elijah Wald's book Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night that Split the Sixties.
The 24-year-old actor reportedly quietly attached himself when Searchlight officials acquired the project after it was let go by HBO bosses.
Chalamet was recently seen portraying Theodore 'Laurie' Laurence in Greta Gerwig's adaptation of Little Women. This year, he will star in Wes Anderson's next movie, The French Dispatch, opposite his frequent collaborator Saoirse Ronan, and Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi epic Dune.
Dylan was previously played by six actors - Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw - in the unconventional biopic I'm Not There in 2007.
