After making his acting debut last year in the acclaimed film The Holdovers, Dominic Sessa is about to prove he's not a one-hit wonder.
According to Variety, the 21-year-old is set to portray late chef, author and globetrotter documentarian Anthony Bourdain in the biopic Tony. A24 is said to be in talks to acquire the project, with Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson (BlackBerry, The Dirties) in talks to direct.
With the script co-written by Lou Howe and Todd Bartels, Tony will also be produced under the Star Thrower Entertainment banner. While Sessa is currently working on films Now You See Me 3, Tow and Oh. What. Fun., Tony could take his career into the stratosphere.
It’s unknown what aspects of Bourdain’s life the film will focus on, as the New York City native lived an inspirational and well-traveled life before his tragic death by suicide in June 2018. Bourdain, who was host of food-centric shows No Reservations and Parts Unknown, died at 61.
Bourdain’s life was last chronicled in the 2021 Morgan Neville-directed documentary Roadrunner, which controversially used artificial intelligence for Bourdain’s voice to “narrate” the film.
"Basically, to synthesize Tony’s opinion on how to approach an edit is to break every fucking rule," Neville told IndieWire editor in chief, Dana Harris-Bridson.
"If you play it safe, you failed. Be punk rock. Take no prisoners. Challenge all the norms. And so I said, ‘well, here we go. Tony’s telling me to do this.’ And I’m still glad we did. I stand by it."