Anthony Bourdain’s Graphic Novel ‘Get Jiro’ Ordered as Adult Swim Animated Series

The legacy of iconic culinary master and TV staple Anthony Bourdain (“Parts Unknown”) lives on with an Adult Swim adaptation of Bourdain’s graphic novel series “Get Jiro.”

The Warner Bros. Discovery’s brand has ordered an animated-series version of the comics from DC/Vertigo. The “Get Jiro” graphic novels, cowritten by Bourdain and Joel Rose and featuring artwork by Langdon Foss and Alé Garza, are New York Times bestsellers. Bourdain and Rose’s first graphic novel in the franchise was published in 2012.

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This “Get Jiro” will be a half-hour animated series set in a not-too-distant future L.A. where master chefs rule the city and people will murder each other to get a reservation at the best restaurant. The show centers on a mysterious, revenge-focused sushi chef named Jiro.

The screenwriters for A24 feature “Sharper,” Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka, serve as co-creators and showrunners for the upcoming series.

“For two decades, Adult Swim has pushed the boundaries of animation, repeatedly surprised its audience and launched and grown careers – and we’re not that interested in stopping,” Michael Ouweleen, president of Adult Swim, said in a press statement. “With Adult Swim expanding its global reach even further as Max rolls out across Europe, Annecy is the perfect platform to underscore Adult Swim’s dominance in adult animation.”

Bourdain had a slew of TV series, memoirs, and documentaries, including posthumous film “Roadrunner” directed by Morgan Neville. Bourdain died by suicide in 2018.

“Parts Unknown” executive producers Lydia Tenaglia and Chris Collins told IndieWire in 2019 that at first Bourdain had to adapt to being on the screen.

“Tony was completely awkward, he didn’t understand the relationship with the camera, he didn’t understand what we were doing, why we were there, what was expected of him. He was terrible, it was terrible,” Tenaglia said of the first “Cook’s Tour” shoot in Tokyo. “We’d now sold the series to the Food Network, this was a disaster. [Tony] didn’t quite understand what the dynamic was, and so we were trying to prompt him to deliver to an audience and all he wanted to do was go in, have his experience, and go back to his hotel and publish another book.”

Later, his legacy became about connecting with people across the world.

“I think Tony really understood deeply the power of that type of storytelling,” Tenaglia continued. “Yes, we went there. Yes, we went to try the food of Beirut. Yes, we went to talk to the people who own the restaurants and throw the parties, but when that happened he made a connection, this is the way in, food is the way in, the table is the way in, but that isn’t really the story. The story is who are the people on the ground, what are their lives, what do they hope for, what do they dream about, what are the things they’re up against, what is the culture surrounding whatever this table is and the show shifted at that point and he embraced that more deeply.”

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