‘The Holdovers’ Star Dominic Sessa to Play Anthony Bourdain in Biopic ‘Tony’

A biopic of Anthony Bourdain is in the works, with The Holdovers breakout Dominic Sessa in talks to play the late celebrity chef and travel documentarian.

As first reported by Deadline, Sessa, who portrayed Angus Tully in the Oscar-nominated film The Holdovers, is in line to play Bourdain in Tony, a biopic from Star Thrower Entertainment, the production company behind The Post, King Richard, and Eternity.

The outlet also reports that A24 is in talks with BlackBerry director and co-writer Matt Johnson to helm the project. Johnson is a Canadian actor and filmmaker known for his low-budget independent feature films The Dirties (2013) and Operation Avalanche (2016) and the Vice comedy series Nirvanna the Band the Show.

Lou Howe and Todd Bartels wrote the screenplay for the film, while A24 is in talks to produce with Trevor White and Tim White under their Star Thrower banner, along with Johnson and Matthew Miller. Emily Rose will executive produce.

Bourdain, who once served as the exec chef at Brasserie Les Halles, became a star in the restaurant world for his uncompromising essays on the food industry. This would lead to several books, such as 1999’s Kitchen Confidential, and TV shows, such as the popular Travel Channel series Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, which ran for eight seasons.

In 2013, he started a three-season run as a judge on The Taste and moved his travelogue programming to CNN to host Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. Bourdain died by suicide in 2018.

Related

'Diff’rent Strokes' Star Gary Coleman's 'Suspicious' Death Explored in New Documentary

A24 and Star Thrower have yet to comment on the report, and it is unknown which point of Bourdain’s life the film will cover.

Sessa, who received wide praise for his part in The Holdovers, will next appear in Now You See Me 3 alongside Ariana Greenblatt and Justice Smith. His other upcoming projects include the Michael Showalter Christmas comedy Oh. What. Fun and Stephanie Laing’s drama film Tow, where he’ll star alongside Rose Byrne, Demi Lovato, Ariana DeBose, and Octavia Spencer.

Tony marks the second film project based on Bourdain’s life. The documentary film Roadrunner premiered at Tribeca in 2021 and was met with critical success. However, there was also controversy surrounding the film after Morgan Neville admitted to using artificial intelligence to create three quotes with the late Bourdain’s voice.