Nellie Andreeva

comicon 2010EXCLUSIVE: Circle of Confusion, which is working on its first TV series, AMC’s adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, is putting together another TV series project based on a comic book, John Layman and Rob Guillory’s Chew. Stephen Hopkins has come on board to direct and executive produce the project, which is in the process of locking in a writer. Chew tells the darkly comic story of federal agent Tony Chu, a “cibopath” able to get psychic impression from the things he eats who is assigned to the most usual and bizarre crimes. “There are a lot of superhero comic books but there are not chew01_c1many food comic books,” Layman said. “Food turned out to be a very universal theme embraced by readers.” For Layman, who has been writing comic books since 1995, this marks his first original creation and his first success. “It only took 15 years,” he quipped. Layman is celebrating another anniversary this year – he is heading to Comic-Con for the 20th consecutive year, and this time, he will have a table for Chew following the success of the series’ first two volumes. Circle of Confusion’s partners also will be going to Comic-Con, which will feature a panel for Walking Dead on Friday. The company, which represents many comic book writers, also has Powers, a drama project based on the comic by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Oeming set up at FX.  Kevin Falls is attached as showrunner and Michael Dinner as director. Hopkins has directed the pilots for Fox’s 24, Showtime’s Californication and ABC’s The Unusuals.

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