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The Holdovers breakout Dominic Sessa has signed on to play Anthony Bourdain in a new biopic.
The casting had been initially rumoured last year, but the 22-year-old has now made it official, with the Oscar nominee Antonio Banderas also joining in a role that is being kept under wraps.
The film, titled Tony, will follow the food legend in 1976 during a life-changing summer working and living in Provincetown.
Production is set to start next month with A24 backing and Matt Johnson directing a script by Todd Bartels and Lou Howe. Johnson received acclaim for directing and co-writing 2023’s BlackBerry.
Since his debut role in Alexander Payne’s Oscar-winning comedy drama The Holdovers, Sessa has completed three films set to come out this year. He will join Jesse Eisenberg and Mark Ruffalo in the sequel Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, star in the Michelle Pfeiffer-led Christmas comedy Oh. What. Fun., and play a lawyer in the fact-based drama Tow starring Rose Byrne as a homeless woman.
Banderas recently played Nicole Kidman’s husband in the erotic drama Babygirl and the villain in Paddington in Peru.
Tony is one of a number of biopics on the way from A24. Later this year, Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt will topline The Smashing Machine about the MMA fighter Mark Kerr while Timothée Chalamet will play the ping-pong player Marty Reisman in Marty Supreme.
Bourdain went from a life as a chef in many esteemed professional kitchens to that of an acclaimed food writer and TV personality. He took his own life in 2018.
In 2021, the documentary Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain covered his rise to fame and struggles with mental health issues.
