DirectorJames Mangold’s latest film,A Complete Unknown, is getting a lot of praise these days due in part to Timothée Chalamet’s electric performance as Bob Dylan. Long before the filmmaker explored the legendary singer-songwriter, though, his 2005 filmWalk the Linetook fans inside the life of the iconic Johnny Cash. Starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, the film was a bona fide hit that earned several award wins and even a satirical spoof led by John C. Reilly –Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. Now, nearly 20 years later, Mangold says he wasn’t offended by the 2007 comedybut instead found it “hilarious.”
Speaking withEntertainment Weekly, theComplete Unknowndirector addressed concerns thatWalk Hardscared him off doingmusical biopicsfor a while and saidthat nothing could be further from the truth. He pointed to other satire films that didn’t fail to spook directors such as Robert Eggers, so why should he be any different?
“I found Walk Hard hilarious But I also never understood why satire would negate making the real thing anymore. I wasn’t frightened off any more than Robert Eggers should be frightened of making a monster movie in the face of Young Frankenstein or if another filmmaker might be frightened of making a Western in the face of Blazing Saddles. It’s unfair to say that if someone makes a satire of a genre, it somehow has put a tombstone in the genre for all time. That seems a little ludicrous to me.”
‘A Complete Unknown’ Review: Timothée Chalamet Disappears Into Bob Dylan’s Game-Changing Early Years
Timothée Chalamet becomes Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s beautiful depiction of a pivotal moment in the music scene of the 1960s.
If anything, Mangold says he was more annoyed with the fact thatWalk Hardhad a bigger budget thanWalk the Linedid, adding, “I was more unnerved that the studio who made the movie paid twice as much forWalk Hardand refused to pay half as much forWalk the Line.” It all worked out in the end, though, as Mangold’s film went on to earn more than $186 million at the box office, while the Reilly-led spoof failed to even make back its budget, earning just $20 million in receipts.
Walk Hard Failed to “Kill the Musical Biopic”
Following the release of bothWalk the Linein 2005 andWalk Hardin 2007, the musical biopic seemed to fall out of favor with Hollywood, as if the latter had somehow managed to sour executives from taking on any more projects of that ilk. In fact, Riley himself said in a 2019 interview withThe Ringer, “We tried to kill the musical biopic with [Walk Hard].”
Try as he might, though, Mangold mused that it wasn’tWalk Hardor Reilly that put a damper on the genre at the time but rather that it was the natural ebb and flow of things in Hollywood. “That was just that they had run their course for that moment,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “It takes so long to make a movie that I don’t think things operate in quite the instantaneous fashion where everyone suddenly stays away.”
Itwasn’t untilBohemian Rhapsodyin 2018 that musical biopics began to gain some steam again, leadingtoRocketmanin 2019,Elvisin 2022, and yes, evenWeird: The Al Yankovic Storythat same year. Things have seemed to come full circle for Mangold now,withA Complete Unknowngarnering just as much – if not more – praise thanWalk the Line, which could be a front-runner for a plethora of Academy Awards when the nominations are announced on Jan. 17. Be sure to check out our interview with Mangold above, where he discusses his latest Bob Dylan flick and everything that went into making it.
A Complete Unknown
