Here’s a project we have no reservations about. A24 has set up “Tony,” a biopic about the life of celebrity chef and documentarian Anthony Bourdain, that will star Dominic Sessa, best known as the breakout star of “The Holdovers” from Alexander Payne, as well as Antonio Banderas, an individual with knowledge of the project told IndieWire.
Matt Johnson, who directed “Blackberry,” will direct the film based on a screenplay by Todd Bartels and Lou Howe. Production will kick off on “Tony” next month.
The logline is under wraps, but sources say the film takes place during the summer of 1976, when a young Anthony Bourdain has a life-changing summer in Provincetown. No word on whom Banderas is portraying in the film.
Trevor White and Tim White on behalf of their Star Thrower Entertainment are producing “Tony.” The duo is known for “The Post” and “King Richard,” and they previously partnered with A24 on “Eternity” starring Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Callum Turner. Also producing are Johnson and Matthew Miller through their Zapruder Films banner.
Chris Stinson, Amy Greene, Lou Howe, Todd Bartels, and Emily Rose will executive produce the project. Kimberly Witherspoon, who represents Bourdain’s Estate, will also executive produce.Â
Bourdain, after cooking in Manhattan as an executive chef throughout the ’80s, became an overnight celebrity thanks to his bestseller “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.” Bourdain spilled secrets of life inside the kitchen, and he had a down-to-Earth, no nonsense honesty about food. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, he became iconic as a compelling wordsmith in describing his enthusiasm for simple pleasures, including everything from world class sushi to scrambled eggs to In-n-Out. Bourdain tragically died of suicide in 2018, and a documentary was made on his life by Morgan Neville, “Roadrunner” from 2021.
Sessa made his acting debut in “The Holdovers,” holding his own with Paul Giamatti and flashing his character’s intellect, sarcasm, and pathos. Up next he’ll appear in a film called “Tow” alongside Rose Byrne, in Michael Showalter’s holiday comedy “Oh. What. Fun.,” and in “Now You See Me 3.”
Johnson also just directed “Nirvanna: The Band The Show The Movie” that premiered at SXSW and is being released by Neon.
Johnson is represented by CAA and Chris Spicer at Akin Gump; Sessa is represented by CAA, Untitled, and Steve Warren at Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; Miller is represented by CAA and Chris Spicer at Akin Gump.
Deadline first reported the news.
