Dylan, Scorsese reunite for ‘Rolling Thunder’ film, coming to Netflix this year
LOS ANGELES – For years, rumors have circulated among Bob Dylan fans that a documentary about his legendary, star-studded “Rolling Thunder Revue” tour of 1975-76 was in the works, and occasional whispers had a name attached: Martin Scorsese. Now, the cat can come officially out of the bag. Variety has exclusively learned that Netflix plans to release the movie in 2019, with the director’s name actually in the title: Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese.
The tightly-under-wraps project is said not to be quite as much of a straightforward documentary as Scorsese’s previous Dylan film, 2005’s No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, which zeroed in on Dylan’s crucial 1965-66 “going electric” period. “There’s a reason the word ‘story’ appears in the title,” said a source, hinting that the director may be playing with the form more in this particular film.
Upon further inquiry, Netflix provided Variety
with a thumbnail description of the film that ups the tantalizing ante. “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese captures the troubled spirit of America in 1975 and the joyous music that Dylan performed during the fall of that year. Part documentary, part concert film, part fever dream, Rolling Thunder is a one-of-akind experience from master filmmaker Martin Scorsese.”
No release date has been set. When Variety
asked about a rumor that the film might appear as early as this spring, a source countered that, saying that even the announcement of a premiere date remains “months away.”
One of the few details Netflix did confirm about the movie is that Dylan himself was interviewed for it, which doesn’t necessarily go without saying, since the artist rarely allows himself to be interviewed off-camera, let alone on. A participant in the Rolling Thunder Revue tour confirmed that many of the alumni of that period have done interviews for the movie over the past few years, with most, if not all, of them conducted by Dylan’s longtime manager, Jeff Rosen, as was the case with No Direction Home.
The list of names we might see in the film, whether in present-day interviews or just vintage footage, is a fairly mind-boggling one. The Rolling Thunder Revue was conceived as a sort of loose caravan that involved the presence of poets and writers as well as past and future music luminaries. All of them were presumably caught on film, as Dylan prepared his infamous Renaldo and Clara movie as well as a TV special. Among the tour participants: Joan Baez (reuniting with Dylan for duets after a long gap), band leader Bob Neuwirth, Roger McGuinn, T Bone Burnett, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Ronee Blakley, Mick Ronson, Scarlet Rivera, Allen Ginsberg and Sam Shepard (who published a book about the tour in 1977). Others showing up for isolated shows or appearing in the studio included Joni Mitchell, Ringo Starr, Patti Smith, Bette Midler, Kinky Friedman, Dennis Hopper and Phil Ochs.
It’s not known whether all these faces will appear in the movie, especially as Netflix’s description indicates the film will focus on the fall 1975 tour, when the loose ensemble was said to be at its ramshackle best, and not necessarily the spring 1976 follow-up, when different guests came aboard and reviews indicated the collective had lost some of its charm.
The “fever dream” aspect of Netflix’s thumbnail description may lead buffs to wonder if Scorsese will be borrowing a few cues from Dylan’s Renaldo and Clara film, which received only a brief release in 1978 and has never been released on home video, aside from bootlegs. Although the initial four-hour cut was hardly well received, the fictional vignettes that were shot for the project continue to be a source of fascination for Dylan buffs. (Dylan’s then-wife, Sara, played Clara, while Blakley played “Mrs. Dylan,” in one example of the vintage film’s mischief.) The more theatrical nature of the 1975 shows was heightened by Dylan appearing in whiteface in many of them.
(Variety.com/Reuters)