An Anthony Bourdain Biopic Is In The Works, Here's What We Know So Far

Hollywood will soon be traveling to parts not-exactly-unknown with the announcement of a new biopic about Anthony Bourdain. The production company, Star Thrower Entertainment — which is behind Oscar nominated and winning films like "The Post" and "King Richard" — is working with relatively unknown screenwriters Lou Howe (who wrote and directed the indie horror film "Gabriel") and Todd Bartels (who has no prior screenwriting credits), on the new project, titled "Tony." A24, the cult favorite production and distribution company behind a diverse slate of independent films like "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once," "Lady Bird," and "Midsommar," has tapped Matt Johnson, of the comedy-biopic "BlackBerry," to direct.

The apparent pick to play Bourdain is Dominic Sessa, who recently starred alongside Paul Giamatti and Da'Vine Joy Randolph in "The Holdovers." Sessa, who played an insouciant boarding school student in the throes of emotional turmoil, was highly praised for his debut performance and would be an exciting candidate for this complicated role. With his deep set eyes, easy smirk, and flop of curly black hair, the actor bears a striking resemblance to young Bourdain.

Bourdain, who lived much of his life on camera, would appear to be a cut-and-dry candidate for the biopic treatment. The late, great chef, writer, and TV personality built a legendary culinary career out of humble beginnings before writing the restaurant industry tell-all "Kitchen Confidential," which launched him as the gritty, sarcastic face of the modern food world. He refused to eat brunch food and said in a Reddit AMA that the pumpkin spice craze should be "drowned in its own blood." The wry patter of his voice and the visual markers of his lifestyle (hangover-shielding sunglasses, tattoos, always either a cigarette or a pair of chopsticks in hand) would be easily identified by the generation that grew up watching him in travel-oriented TV shows like "No Reservations," "The Layover," and "Parts Unknown." 

The darker elements of Bourdain's life, including his 2018 suicide, were covered in detail not too long ago in the 2021 documentary "Roadrunner," directed and produced by Morgan Neville. The film was a moderate success, despite some controversy over the use of AI to narrate a select number of Bourdain quotes. Specific details around the content of the new biopic have not yet been revealed, but the casting of Dominic Sessa, who is only 21 years old, might suggest that the film could be set earlier in Bourdain's life, perhaps in his days as a dishwasher on Cape Cod, and later a student at the Culinary Institute of America, in the 1970s.