Almost six years after his shocking death rocked Hollywood, the late chef Anthony Bourdain will be getting his own biopic.
Deadline reports that The Holdovers star Dominic Sessa has been cast to play Bourdain in the upcoming biopic Tony, from Star Thrower Entertainment, the same production company behind King Richard and No One Will Save You. The outlet also reports that A24 is in negotiations to acquire the movie.
Details regarding the Anthony Bourdain biopic are still under wraps, however, we do know that Blackberry director Matt Johnson is attached to helm the film.
Bourdain died by suicide in June 2018 while filming his CNN food series Parts Unknown.
The celebrity chef shot to fame after his bestselling 2000 memoir Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly “tore down the fourth wall that separated the restaurant floor from the kitchen,” as DECIDER’s Meghan O’Keefe wrote after his passing.
The revelatory memoir launched his career as a television personality who used his platform to highlight the best, underrepresented foods, chefs, and eateries across the world. He went on to host Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and The Layover on the Travel Channel and, later, CNN’s Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.
If the rumors are true, Tony marks one of the few projects Sessa has signed onto since his breakout performance in The Holdovers.
According to The Guardian, Sessa famously nabbed his debut role after his high school drama teacher suggested he audition when the film’s casting director was scouting his school, the prestigious Deerfield Academy, as a potential filming location. Sessa had just begun his senior year at the time.
The Holdovers stars Sessa as a sullen teenager who stays behind at school during the holiday break, forcing a professor (Paul Giamatti) to essentially babysit him. Da’Vine Joy Randolph also stars as the academy’s head chef, a performance for which she won an Academy Award.
It’s unclear when production will begin on Tony. For now, the young actor will star in Now You See Me 3, which is set to premiere in 2025.
For those looking to catch up on Bourdain’s legacy, Parts Unknown and No Reservations are both streaming on Max.
