A New Documentary Will Pay Tribute to Anthony Bourdain Next Year
The unexpected loss of Anthony Bourdain earlier this summer has resulted in an obvious uptick in curiosity about the food legend’s life. The public’s hunger for more of the inspiration that only Bourdain’s unique perspective can provide has resulted in a few major announcements. First, is CNN’s decision to continue to air new episodes of Parts Unknown this fall — a final season in which Bourdain travels to Kenya, Texas, Spain, Indonesia, and Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Second is the news of Bourdain: The Oral Biography, edited by his longtime assistant and collaborator Laurie Woolever, coming next fall. Woolever and Bourdain co-wrote his 2016 cookbook Appetites.
But those aren’t the only two ways that Bourdain fans will be able to keep his memory alive: CNN recently told Vanity Fair that a documentary on his life is in the works and could “hit screens as early as 2019.”
The film is currently in pre-production and in the very capable hands of Zero Point Zero, the same production company responsible for his television series Parts Unknown, which premiered in 2013.
As far as documentary details go, they’re pretty slim, but CNN’s executive vice president for talent and content told Vanity Fair this: “As well as we knew Tony, because he did reveal himself in the series, there was still a hunger to know more about him, and to honor his work and celebrate him. The documentary format became one of the more obvious ways to go.”
In anticipation of the film version of Bourdain’s life hitting the big screen, viewers can watch the entirety of Parts Unknown on Netflix, which will remain on the streaming service indefinitely, and keep an eye out for Ecco Books’ Bourdain: The Oral Biography in the fall of 2019. All of these projects are further evidence of the massive impact that Bourdain had on the culinary world and beyond.