Written and directed by Morgan Neville, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain is a documentary about Chef, writer, adventurer and provocateur.

He lived his life unabashedly in an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at how an anonymous chef became a world-renowned cultural icon. Neville gives us an unflinching look at Bourdain’s resounding presence, in his own voice, and in the way he indelibly affected the world around him.

Drawing on previously unseen footage from Bourdain’s television shows, all-new interviews with his friends and family, and Bourdain’s own wry and instantly recognizable voiceovers, Neville creates a record of an extraordinary man’s unexpected rise to stardom as a celebrity chef, book author, journalist and travel documentarian. 

The story, the filmmaker realized early in the filmmaking process, is one of constant transformation. “In the beginning, I wasn’t sure what the film was going to be about,” he says. “I only knew I wanted to celebrate the joy and excitement and humor of the man. But I soon found the story I wanted to tell was how a hard-living, irreverent chef at a mediocre New York restaurant suddenly shot to fame at the age of 44 and what happened after that. Not many people in their mid-40s suddenly go from utter obscurity to absolute fame.”