A24 is pressing the rewind button on its upcoming Anthony Bourdain biopic, “Tony.” After testing, the film will undergo reshoots starting April 22.
Dominic Sessa, who recently drew attention for his lead turn in “The Holdovers,” is set to play the late chef and writer. The casting list also includes Emilia Jones, Antonio Banderas, Rich Sommer and Stavros Halkias (!), rounding out a lineup that already feels like it could draw curiosity even before the first trailer.
The reshoots come with a clear timing plan: production is looking at a fall release, and the film is also expected to premiere at TIFF. Whether those dates hold up once the additional filming wraps—well, that’s always the million-dollar question. For now, “Tony” is moving into that next phase after testing, and the studio’s hope is simple: make the movie better than the version audiences saw.
Directed by Matt Johnson—fresh off 2023’s acclaimed “BlackBerry”—the project has a screenplay credited to Todd Bartel and Lou Howe. Plot specifics are still technically under wraps. Still, “Tony” is supposed to take place in 1976, tracking a young Bourdain after a life-changing experience working and living in Provincetown, Mass. That detail is a real anchor, the kind of place-and-time setup that could shape the whole tone.
In the years that followed, Bourdain built a reputation in the culinary world as an executive chef in Manhattan during the 1980s. His breakout moment arrived with the release of Kitchen Confidential: “Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly,” a bestselling memoir that propelled him into mainstream stardom. Later, he became a beloved presence through his Travel Channel series “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations,” which aired for eight seasons. He died by suicide in 2018.
Whether Bourdain would have approved of a Hollywood biopic about his life is… unlikely, honestly. He wasn’t the type to chase spotlight theatrics. This film, even with its talent and ambition, feels like the sort of project he might have resisted most. Johnson has form, though. If the movie ends up hitting like “BlackBerry,” or this year’s “Nirvana the Band The Show The Movie,” then the reshoots won’t just be a production hiccup. Expect lots of handheld camerawork and rapid zooms—his forte—and, maybe, a version of “Tony” that lands closer to what viewers end up wanting from a story like this.
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