Hollywood cast grows for Bob Dylan biopic

The upcoming officially sanctioned Bob Dylan biopic has added even more A-list Hollywood celebrities to its cast. Real life couple, and Brokeback Mountain co-stars, Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams have joined the cast of the offbeat film, titled I'm Not There, in which several actors of different sex and race portray Dylan throughout the film. The movie, due out next year, is directed by Todd Haynes and also stars such heavyweights as Richard Gere, Julianne Moore, Colin Farrell, Christian Bale, and Cate Blanchett.

The film's producer Christine Vachon told The Montreal Gazette that the movie is different from a straight ahead biopic, explaining that, "Nobody is actually playing Bob Dylan. These actors are all playing various incarnations him. The thing about Dylan that's so fascinating is that he has completely and utterly changed his identity time and time again, and this movie is a play on that. I think it's kind of the only way to look at him.

The film, which is named after one of Dylans legendary unreleased 1967 Basement Tapes tracks, is currently filming in Montreal and expected to wrap around the first week of October.

Frank Sinatra Jr., a longtime friend of Dylan's, told us that beneath Dylan's enigmatic public persona is a very humble man: "I know Bob. I've known Bob for 35 years. And I was very, very pleased at his down-to-earth personality. 'Not trying to be somebody that he isn't. You know? He puts on no airs at all. He's just trying to be him."

Although Bob will reportedly not appear in the film, he's no stranger to the silver screen, having appeared in such documentaries and vanity projects as 1967's Don't Look Back, 1978's The Last Waltz and Renaldo & Clara, and most recently 2003's Masked And Anonymous.

Dylan's latest album, titled Modern Times, will be released on August 29th.

He will next perform on Saturday (August 12th), in Comstock Park, Michigan at the Fifth-Third Stadium. He'll be on tour through September.
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