A24 and Canadian director Matt Johnson (“BlackBerry”) are working together on a feature film exploring the life of late professional chef, author, humanitarian, and travel show host Anthony Bourdain. Now, there is a bit of a casting update to share for “Tony.”
Variety not only confirms that Dominic Sessa (“The Holdovers”) is indeed set to play a young Bourdain in the biopic set in 1976, but they’ve also revealed Oscar-nominee Antonio Banderas (“Pain & Glory”) has been tapped for an undisclosed role.
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We’ll see Sessa playing Bourdian during his formidable life-changing experience working summers at local seafood restaurants and living in Provincetown, Mass. These events are documented in the author’s brutally honest autobiographical novel “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures In The Culinary Underbelly,” where Bourdain took readers behind the scenes of the rock-and-roll lifestyle of cooks and kitchen crews, along with exposing the heinous practices of less ethical restaurants and excellent advice on professionalism for anyone wanting to get into the industry.
Bourdian, who had struggled with addiction to drugs like crack cocaine and heroin during his youth (obsessed with drug-abusing rockstars like Lou Reed and Iggy Pop), eventually got sober and became an overnight success after a feature article for The New Yorker he wrote in 1999 led to a publishing deal and then a wave of television shows that saw him trekking across the globe such as “A Cook’s Tour,” “No Reservations,” “The Layover,” and his final Emmy-winning series at CNN, “Parts Unknown.”
Sadly, Bourdain took his own life in 2018 in the French city of Strasbourg, where he was shooting an episode of “Parts Unknown” with longtime chef pal Eric Ripert. He often used his celebrity to spotlight all sorts of injustices and documented all sorts of places, some tourist hotspots and others considered off-limits to most travellers.
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Johnson directs “Tony” from a script penned by Todd Bartels and Lou Howe, with filming kicking off next month.
For those curious, the biopic will have the participation of Bourdain’s estate as rep Kimberly Witherspoon will serve as executive producer, alongside Chris Stinson, Amy Greene, Howe, Bartels, and Emily Rose.
