Tony Was a 2024 Black List Script. Now It Opens August 7.

By The Backlot

@backlotfriends

A young man with curly dark hair in a striped shirt faces a young woman in a floral top on a 1970s beach, with a vintage radio and wine bottle between them and beachgoers visible behind them.

The script appeared on the 2024 Black List before A24 greenlit it.

Tony follows Anthony Bourdain at 19, the summer he spent working at a Provincetown seafood restaurant in 1975. It is drawn from Kitchen Confidential, where Bourdain described that season as the start of everything. Dominic Sessa plays him. Antonio Banderas plays the Brazilian chef who runs the kitchen.

Matt Johnson directed from a script he cowrote.

This is not a biopic of the famous Bourdain. It is a summer job movie set entirely in the years before any of that fame existed.

Opening in select theaters August 7. Expanding August 21.

Quick Facts

Tony Was a 2024 Black List Script. Now It Opens August 7.

DirectorMatt Johnson

CastDominic Sessa, Antonio Banderas, Emilia Jones, Leo Woodall, Dagmara Dominska

GenreDrama, Comedy

Release2026-08-07

Runtime106 min

Rated98% on Rotten Tomatoes

Instagram caption

A24's Tony was on the Hollywood Black List before it got made. Dominic Sessa plays Anthony Bourdain at 19 in the summer that changed his life. Opens in theaters August 7. #Tony #A24 #Backlot

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Tony was a 2024 Black List script before A24 greenlit it. Dominic Sessa plays Bourdain at 19. Antonio Banderas plays the chef. Opens in theaters Friday. #Tony #A24 #Backlot