EXCLUSIVE: Following his breakout role in the Oscar-winning dramedy The Holdovers, Dominic Sessa looks to have found his next high-profile project as sources tell Deadline he is attached to star as the late chef Anthony Bourdain in the biopic Tony from Oscar-nominated production company Star Thrower Entertainment. Sources also tell Deadline that A24 is in negotiations to acquire the package.
Tim and Trevor White of Star Thrower and Matt Miller are producing along with director Matt Johnson. Lou Howe and Todd Bartels penned the script. Emily Rose will exec produce.
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A24 and Star Thrower had no comment.
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Bourdain came up cooking in various restaurants across Manhattan in the 1980s and ’90s, including being the exec chef at Brasserie Les Halles, but it was his essay collection about the ugly secrets of restaurants that put him on the map. Following their publication in The New Yorker, Bourdain became an instant star on the media food scene due to his point-blank, tell-it-like-it-is tone that audiences were not accustomed to.
He would begin hosting a number of TV shows, but it was his Travel Channel series Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations that made him star over its eight-season run. Bourdain died by suicide in 2018.
It is unknown at what point in his life this project will take place.
Star Thrower is no stranger to the biopic. having produced King Richard, which earned a Best Picture Oscar nomination and a Lead Actor win for star Will Smith. The company just wrapped production on the A24 film Eternity.
As for Sessa, the rising actor has had his pick of projects to choose from following his star-making turn in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers. While his co-stars Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph earned Oscar nominations — Randolph wound up winning — Sessa held his own and earned strong reviews following the films festival premiere.
Johnson most recently directed the critically acclaimed dark comedy Blackberry.
Johnson is represented by CAA and Chris Spicer at Akin Gump; Sessa is represented by CAA, Untitled and Steve Warren at Hansen Jacobson Teller; Miller is represented by CAA and Chris Spicer at Akin Gump. Howe and Bartels are repped by Mosaic and attorney Andre Des Rochers.