When was the last time that the advance “leaking” of a promotional movie poster generated buzz all by itself? I don’t know, but search Google News today and you’ll find a whole handful of stories about the appearance of a poster for the forthcoming Bob Dylan biopic, directed by Todd Haynes, called “I’m Not There,” which is expected in theaters in September.

The movie is described as featuring either six or seven Bob Dylans.

Dylan is played at different points by various actors including Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett. Actually, I shouldn’t say “at different points” — for all I know, they might get together at the same time and have one big hootenanny.

I have a kind of sentimental attachment to the progress of this seemingly bizarre project, since it happens to be one of the first things I wrote about on this website, way back in September of 2004. I listed a bunch of the then-pending projects by or concerning Dylan, and remarked that:

… it suggests to me that Bob is enjoying having different people come at his work from different angles. He’s not too worried about what perspectives the likes of Haynes, Ricks, Scorsese and others will have. He’s not too worried about being misinterpreted - or even about being condemned for becoming a lingerie salesman. You have to assume in fact that he is actively amused by people being off-balance, and unable to nail down exactly where he’s coming from. Not a new thing, maybe - he’s always surprised and sometimes horrified certain people with his own work - but the pace of all these things at the moment indicate that he’s really having fun with it.

Still seems about right. I do hope he doesn’t live to regret this “I’m Not There” film, but, when a “biopic” is as unconventional and indeed off-the-wall as this one appears to be, how can anything in it possibly stick to Bob?

That, I would say, is precisely why he was happy to go along with it.

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Addendum: Sue e-mails:

Don’t know about you Sean, but I’m still struggling with the idea that two of the most boring people on the planet - Richard Gere and Heath Ledger - could play one of the most interesting.

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