If you walked up Webster Avenue past the Woodlawn Cemetery on a recent Thursday it may have seemed as if you stepped back in time a half century or so.

Two weeks ago, that stretch of Webster, which stretches north along the Bronx River, was full of Chevys, Fords and Pontiacs from the 1950s and 1960s.

The cemetery was being used as a film set for a new movie called, “Mr. Tambourine Man” starring J.K. Simmons (of “Law and Order,” “Oz” and “Juno” fame) and Julia Ormond (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”).

Usually a tranquil area of the Bronx, the cemetery was inundated with teamsters, production assistants, lighting rigs, trucks and filming equipment. 

The famous Bronx cemetery, which is the final resting place for legends such as jazz musician Duke Ellington and author Herman Melville, will be the setting for the funeral of Simmons’ character.

The next day, the film crew headed south, to use the Mt. St. Ursula Academy campus in Bedford Park as their backdrop. They were scheduled to film one exterior and one interior scene, but the heavy rains on Friday forced them to film both scenes indoors.

“It was a little hectic, but it was a lot of fun for the students,” said Father John Vigilanti, the principal of the all-girls Catholic school. “We didn’t know what to expect. The crew was here from 6 a.m. until midnight.”

Originally the crew was supposed to film one scene in the library and then another scene that featured an anti-Vietnam protest outdoors. The protest ended up being filmed in the lobby of the school making things a little crazy for the students and faculty, Vigilanti said.

Vigilanti was so impressed by the entire filming process and his students’ reactions that he invited several members of the crew to come back to Mt. St. Ursula for career day on April 21.
Simmons even took a little time out of his day to pose for a picture with the drama club.

“I think we established a good relationship with the crew,” said Vigilanti. “Hopefully, they recommend our school to other film companies to shoot in.”

“Mr. Tambourine Man” is an adaptation of a case study called “The Last Hippie,” by Oliver Sacks, the author of “Awakening.” It is the true story of a man name Gabriel who suffers a brain tumor and can only communicate to others through the music of Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead.

The production also filmed scenes in Greenwich Village.