Photos via Eater NYC and JOSE PEREZ/BAUER-GRIFFIN.
Another part of Jersey City is getting its place in Bob Dylan’s story.
The iconic White Mana Diner, located on 470 Tonnelle Avenue, will be closed for several days next week for the filming of Bob Dylan’s upcoming biopic, “A Complete Unknown.”
“Dune” star Timothée Chalamet will be playing Dylan, who has had a grip on pop culture for the last 60 years and is considered one of the greatest songwriters.
The film will focus on Dylan’s journey as a 19-year-old folk-singer from Minnesota to a multi-genre, chart-topping cultural phenomenon.
Mario Costa, owner of the diner which has been open since 1946, says he’s thrilled to have his business chosen as a location.
“Oh I love it,” Costa told Slice of Culture. “It’s history, you know? … and it’s good for the diner. We’ve been here forever.”
Costa has been longtime friends with writer Larry Sloman–who he and many others call “Ratso”–who penned “On The Road With Bob Dylan” after spending a whole year with the influential singer-songwriter to account for his 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue tour.
Ratso spends a lot of time at White Mana because of legendary heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson, who has been a longtime close friend of Costa and visits Jersey City often. The diner and Costa’s across-the-street bar, Ringside Lounge, is decorated with numerous photos of Costa, Tyson and other legendary boxers like Arturo Gatti. Ratso wrote “Undisputed Truth – Mike Tyson,” which is a New York Times bestseller.
According to Costa, Ratso loves their cheeseburgers.
And another person who became fond of the old-school diner was James Mangold, the director of “A Complete Unknown.” Costa told Slice of Culture that Mangold came “out of the blue” but as soon as he came in he said, “I love it.”
Dylan has been active since 1959, revitalizing and reshaping different genres of music while simultaneously influencing pop culture. In 1962, he debuted his self-titled album which featured traditional folk songs. A few years later, in 1965 and 1966, he switched gears by creating rock albums “Bringing It All Back Home,” “Highway 61 Revisited” and “Blonde On Blonde.”
But what is arguably one of his most impactful songs, “Like A Rolling Stone,” released in 1965, became more than just music. Aside from captivating fans with its snare drum, electrifying guitar and reeling background organ sounds, the song went on to inspire the name of renowned magazine Rolling Stone, which first published in November 1967, and just symbolized the overall cultural revolution of the 1960s. Dylan’s music has influenced a number of songwriters–many attempting to “emulate” him–including The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, to name a few.
In 2023, Dylan surprise-dropped an album called, “Shadow Kingdom.”
Plans for Dylan’s biopic were first announced in January 2020, and filming recently hit the ground as photos of Chalamet, in recreated looks, have flooded the internet.
Chalamet has risen to fame in his own way for roles in Greta Gerwig’s films “Lady Bird” in 2017 and “Little Women” in 2019. Soon enough, he took on lead roles in science fiction films “Dune” in 2021 and its sequel “Dune: Part Two,” which just released this year. He also starred in the remake of musical fantasy 2023 film “Wonka.”
White Mana will be closed from Monday, April 1 to Thursday, April 4, according to a photo taken by Costa. Film crews were reportedly recently seen at another old-school diner, Miss America Diner, located at 322 West Side Avenue.
“A Complete Unknown” will also be filming in Passaic, Essex and Cape May counties because they’re looking to “duplicating Woodstock in New Jersey” as Dylan lived in Woodstock, New York in the 1960s.
“This is very special,” Costa said.
