Cities in NJ are being transformed for movie starring Timothée Chalamet
🎙 Bob Dylan biopic is shooting in NJ
🎬 A downtown was transformed into old NYC
🎥 Social media is showing clips of young star as icon
New Jersey has its first glimpses of another buzzworthy movie being filmed in parts of the state — in which actor Timothée Chalamet plays music icon, Bob Dylan.
“A Complete Unknown” is being directed by James Mangold, with Chalamet as the folk rock singer and songwriter, as he rises to fame in 1960s New York City.
Some of that vintage backdrop is being shot in Jersey City and Paterson — as seen in video clips posted to social media.
White Eagle Hall took to Instagram on Wednesday, with several still shots of how Jersey City was made over to resemble 1960’s Greenwich Village.
Wonder Bagels was turned into Cafe Borgia, the music venue noted.
The actual Cafe Borgia closed for good in 2001, at MacDougal and Bleecker — when it had been the oldest cafe in the Village after Caffe Reggio.
Other businesses along Jersey Avenue were given a nostalgic transformation. Dylan moved to NY in 1961 and played at clubs before being signed to Columbia Records.
He released his self-titled debut album the following year (and legally changed his name from Robert Zimmerman) — and the rest is history.
Mangold has said it’s “not really a Bob Dylan biopic,” as quoted by Variety. The filmmaker said he has lots of support from the real Dylan, in making a movie about “a very specific moment” in the 1960s folk scene of New York.
Pete Seeger and Woody Gutherie were already big deals on that scene — and the movie co-stars Ed Norton as Seeger.
Read More: Bob Dylan biopic is going to film in NJ
Mangold has directed a hit music biopic before — 2005’s Walk the Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash.
His more recent projects have included Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Ford v Ferrari and Logan.
Some Instagram users — including girlfromjerseycity and mickmicknyc — have shared video clips of Chalamet as Dylan, shuffling through the remade streets of NJ, as seen below:
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