Robert Downey Jr to play Ferran Adrià in new elBulli film?

29 Jul 2013
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2 min read
Ferran Adrià announces that if he could pick anyone to play his character in the new elBulli film, set to hit screens in 2014, he’d pick Hollywood star, Robert Downey Jr.

Some people have it all: world-wide recognition for one of the greatest restaurants known to man and, even when that fails, an exhibition and a research centre erected in its honour. What harm could come by adding an extra cherry to the already salivating-ly delicious cake that is chef idolFerran Adrià’s life? None, apparently. The three-star chef has just announced that in the new film on elBulli, which is set to be released later in 2014, he would love his character to be played by über-famousHollywood star, Robert Downey Jr.

The reason for Adrià’s choice, it turns out, isn’t just because of Robert’s undeniably good looks and excellent acting skills: “Robert Downey Jr. would be good, he loves eating, he’s a great actor, he’s been in some fantastic films, he’s about my age. But I don’t know who’s going to do it.”

The film, which was granted funding earlier this year in February 2013, is set to explore the final season of elBulli, before the restaurant closed for financial reasons in 2012. The announcement of the film’s production came in the wake of news that restaurant elBulli, situated in Spain’s Catalonia region, will be transformed into culinary research centre, elBullifoundation.

The film’s director, Jeff Kleeman said: “If everything goes perfectly, we shoot the movie in the fall, and the release is in 2014, with the opening of the [elBulli] foundation.”

Ferran and elBulli were also honoured at an exhibition on the evolution of the restaurant’s laboratory and kitchens this summer, hosted by London’s Somerset House.

Not the first film to be made about the Ferran and elBulli –El Bulli: Cooking in Progress, directed by Gereon Wetzel, took to screens in 2010 – Jeff Kleeman’s film will take inspiration from Lisa Abends’ documentary bookThe Sorcerer’s Apprenticesand will give Ferran fans a real insight to the final and, quite rightly, emotional moments of elBulli’s very last meal.