Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Showtime has bought a script for Chew, a quirky half-hour cop show based on John Layman and Rob Guillory’s bestselling comic book of the same name. Stephen Hopkins is attached to direct and executive produce the project, which hails from Circle of Confusion, the company behind AMC’s hit series adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead.

Terri Hughes Burton and Ron Milbauer (Eureka) wrote the Chew script, which will now be tweaked under Showtime’s guidance. 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 many food comic books,” Layman told me back in July when the TV project was still in the nascent stages. Along with Hopkins, Burton, Milbauer, David Engel and Circle of Confusion are also executive producing Chew, with Hopkins’ producing partner Kate Garwood expected to produce in some capacity. Hopkins has a longstanding relationship with Showtime: He directed the pilot for the network’s dark comedy series Californication and recently helmed an episode of freshman drama Shameless as well as one of Showtime’s recently ordered pilots, the Don Cheadle starrer House of Lies.

In addition to The Walking Dead, which has been renewed for a second season, Circle of Confusion is executive producing Powers, a drama project based on the comic by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Oeming that was recently picked up to pilot by FX. Charles H. Eglee adapted the comic book for Sony TV and FX Prods., with Michael Dinner directing.

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