It’s not where you go. It’s what you leave behind . . . Chef, writer, adventurer, provocateur: Anthony Bourdain lived his life unabashedly. Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain is an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at how an anonymous chef became a world-renowned cultural icon. From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?), this unflinching look at Bourdain reverberates with his presence, in his own voice and in the way he indelibly impacted the world around him.

ROADRUNNER: A Film About Anthony Bourdain to Premiere Sunday, March 13 at 9PM Eastern on CNN

Morgan Neville-Directed Documentary and Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown Marathon to air in Tribute to Late Writer, Chef, Cultural Philosopher



ROADRUNNER: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, about the life of the cultural explorer, writer, and chef Anthony Bourdain, will have its broadcast premiere Sunday, March 13 at 9:00pm and 11:30pm Eastern, with limited commercial interruption. The film is directed by Academy Award-winner Morgan Neville, produced by Neville’s Tremolo Productions, and commissioned by CNN Films and HBO Max.



Bourdain launched onto the cultural scene with his wildly successful memoir Kitchen Confidential (2000), which captured stories from his years working in the restaurant trade. Neville’s film traces Bourdain’s rapid transformation that followed, from line cook to celebrated global-trotting explorer, and renowned television host. Bourdain achieved more than he could have imagined and yet, like so many others, sometimes had conflicted feelings about his success. Neville synthesized the essence of thousands of hours of Bourdain’s professional archive, family photos, home video, personal letters, and more than 30, original interviews of people close to Bourdain during his life, to develop a compelling portrait.



Bourdain’s curiosity for understanding the world was infectious, and his passion for sharing that enthusiasm with armchair voyagers radically changed the genre of travel and food television. His dispatches never caricaturized the cultures he explained, and he was equally never condescending to his audience. Bourdain was perhaps the only guide to ever show a mass television audience places like Myanmar, Iran, Koreatown, West Virginia, Colombia, or Cajun Mardi Gras, with the same reverence for the people, their history, and experiences, as he held for their food.



Leading up to the premiere of the film, CNN will broadcast a marathon of episodes of the Emmy® Award-winning CNN Original Series Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown Episodes airing during the marathon include:

• The French Alps with three-Michelin starred chef and close friend Eric Ripert;
• Lyon, France with chef and Bourdain mentor Daniel Boulud;
• Sichuan, China also with chef Eric Ripert;
• Vietnam, which includes an interview with President Barack Obama;
• Tokyo, Japan, with sushi chef Yasuda; and,
• Honshu Island, Japan with three-Michelin starred chef Masa Takayama

Lydia Tenaglia and Christopher Collins, founders of Zero Point Zero Production (ZPZ), creative collaborators with Bourdain for nearly two decades, including Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown, and Kimberly Witherspoon, Bourdain’s longtime agent and literary executor, are all consulting producers for ROADRUNNER, and are among those interviewed for the film. ROADRUNNER premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival before its theatrical run that saw it become among the top 10 most successful documentary releases of the year.



During the March 13 premiere, ROADRUNNER: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, will also stream live for subscribers via CNNgo (www.CNN.com/go and via CNNgo apps for AppleTV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast, Samsung Smart TV, and Android TV) and on the CNN mobile apps for iOS and Android. The film will be available on demand via cable/satellite systems, CNNgo platforms, and CNN mobile apps, beginning Monday, March 14, through Wednesday, April 6. While watching the film, viewers can comment and interact with others across social media platforms using the hashtag #Roadrunner.