By John Corrado

A24 has just released the first trailer for their upcoming Anthony Bourdain biopic Tony, which stars Dominic Sessa as the celebrity chef.

The main reason I’m intrigued by this one is because it’s directed by none other than Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson, who is coming off the recent critical success of his Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, which released in theatres earlier this year, as well as 2023’s BlackBerry.

The film takes place over one summer in 1976, so it’s intended more as a snapshot of one chapter in Bourdain’s life as opposed to the usual biopic, an approach that could work well. Antonio Banderas leads the supporting cast as the chef mentoring him, and CODA’s Emilia Jones is the love interest.

I’ve been a fan of Johnson’s work for years, and have been impressed with Sessa ever since his debut role in The Holdovers, so I’m obviously very interested in this director-actor pairing. It opens in theatres in August, so A24 clearly intends this to be more of a commercial play instead of holding it for the fall festivals as initially expected.