Dominic Sessa and Antonio Banderas confirmed for Anthony Bourdain biopic
The Holdovers star Dominic Sessa has been confirmed to play the late chef Anthony Bourdain in a new A24 biopic. Antonio Banderas will also appear in an unconfirmed role.
Filming is set to begin next month, and the movie has been named Tony. It will be set in 1976 when Bourdain suffers a life-altering experience in Provincetown, Massachusetts, which changes how he views the world.
Significantly, the film will not focus on Bourdain’s culinary career, which began two years after Tony is set.
The project comes from filmmaker Matt Johnson, who previously directed Blackberry. Todd Bartels and Lou Howe penned the script. Meanwhile, A24, Star Thrower and Zapruder Films have co-financed and co-produced it.
Bourdain was a celebrated chef who broke new ground as an author, TV personality, and travel documentarian. He first rose to prominence with his essays about the underworld of New York’s culinary scene for The New Yorker. In 2000, he released the celebrated memoir, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.
The late chef’s travel series, No Reservations and Parts Unknown, are revered thanks to Bourdain’s unique approach to the genre. They allowed audiences to travel the world through his eyes and experience culture from across the globe.
Before becoming a celebrated television star, Bourdain cut his teeth at various New York City restaurants throughout the 1980s and ’90s, including a prestigious role at Brasserie Les Halles. He passed away in 2018 while filming his travel series in Strasbourg, France, aged 61.
There is no current release date attached to Tony.
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