The first trailer has been released for Matt Johnson’s Tony, a biopic starring The Holdovers breakout Dominic Sessa as a young Anthony Bourdain. The trailer, released Tuesday morning, offers an extensive look at Sessa’s performance as Bourdain and the film’s plot. Unlike most biopics, which follow a real-life figure from the beginning of their career to the end, Tony takes a different approach. The film will follow a young Bourdain during a specific summer spent working in a kitchen off the coast of Cape Cod.
The film is directed by Matt Johnson, known most recently for Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie, the acclaimed film spinoff of the web series created by Johnson and Jay McCarroll. Johnson is credited as one of the writers of the film, along with Matthew Miller, Todd Bartels, and Lou Howe. In addition to Sessa, the film also stars Emilia Jones, Leo Woodall, Antonio Banderas, Dagmara Dominczyk, Rich Sommers, and Stavros Halkias. Producers on the film include Johnson, Miller, Amy Greene, Tim White, and Trevor White.
In a statement released alongside the trailer, Anthony Bourdain’s estate shared insights into why they gave the filmmakers of Tony their full blessing for the film. Here’s the full statement:
We chose to support Tony because it is not a standard biopic and doesn’t attempt to summarize a life. Guided by the vision of director Matt Johnson, the film depicts one transformative summer in 1975 in Provincetown, Massachusetts. It is an interpretation, as that part of Tony’s life will always remain somewhat unknown. We appreciate the portrayal of Tony’s complexity, his intellectual appetite and his conviction — qualities that eventually took him around the globe and endeared him to so many. We hope this film serves as a reminder that every journey has a start, and that audiences see the beginnings of the man who taught us how to be better explorers on our own paths.
A24 will be releasing Tony in theaters in August. The first trailer can be viewed below:
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