Jon Favreau has amassed an impressive, diverse filmography over the years, as his seasonal hit Elf is now a Christmas staple and he has forever secured a place in the hearts of geeks everywhere by bringing Iron Man to the big screen. Since then he’s worked on Iron Man 2 and Cowboys & Aliens, but for his most recent project, Favreau stayed away from comic book fare and opted to make a more personal film titled Chef, which he wrote, directed and stars in.
Favreau plays Carl Casper, a Miami-born chef who tries and fails to open a restaurant in Los Angeles. He then returns to Miami and opens a food truck with his ex-wife (Sofia Vergara), his friend (John Leguizamo) and his estranged son (Emjay Anthony), which he plans to drive across the country in order to reclaim his success in L.A.
It’s nice to see that Favreau, who has blossomed as director over the last few years, is scaling back a little bit and stepping away from big-budget tentpole properties. In today’s world it seems easy for filmmakers to get caught up in bigger films, and it’s refreshing to see someone who’s still passionate enough about movies to make one that’s closer to the heart.
Today, Open Road Films has released several new images from Chef, which you can see below. They offer up a look at the cast and give us a small idea of what to expect from what sounds like an interesting project for Favreau. I’m definitely eager to see what the director has cooked up with Chef and these pictures have only further my excitement.
Chef co-stars Dustin Hoffman, Bobby Cannavale, and Oliver Platt, and also reunites Favreau with Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson. The film premiers at SXSW in March, then hits theaters on May 9th.
