If you pay any attention to our humble little site, you know that most of us (except Sheldon) absolutely love Image Comics’ Chew.

Chew is written by John Layman with fantastic art by Rob Guillory.  In Chew, because of a horrible bird flu pandemic, a prohibition is placed against all poultry products and the FDA has become the single strongest branch of the United States government, much like the CIA.  Tony Chu is an FDA agent with a strange psychic ability (called cibopathic), he gets a psychic impression from everything he eats.  If he eats an apple, he can see it growing on the tree, all the bugs that landed on it, the man who picked it, its truck ride to the store and everything that happened to that piece of food until he put it in his mouth.  The only thing he doesn’t get an impression from, for whatever reason, is beets.  Chu uses his ability to handle all manner of food related investigations for the FDA.

This is a fantastic comic book that won an Eisner Award in 2010 for Best New Series.  For a little insight about Chew and John Layman, the series’ creator, check out the video interview we did with him at SDCC 2010.  In it, he told us about the possibility of a live action Chew TV show sometime in the future.  Until then, here’s our picks for the live action Chew:

Tony Chu: Ken Leung
A lot of people have said that John Cho would make a great Tony Chu, and I see where they’re coming from.  He’s a great actor with great comic timing, but to me he’s a little too pretty boy.  Tony Chu is a very manic, overstressed guy who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders and gets plenty dirty in the process.  Ken Leung played a similarly world weary character on Lost and brought a lot of humor to the role.  His character on Lost was specifically created for him when the creators of the show saw him on The Sopranos and decided they wanted his talents on their show.  Leung is a great actor that would bring a lot of humor and believability to the role of Tony Chu.

Mason Savoy: John Rhys-Davies
Mason Savoy is Tony’s first partner when he becomes an FDA agent.  Savoy is similarly cibopathic and originally he and Chu solved crimes together.  Eventually, Chu realizes that Savoy is really trying to undermine the FDA and figure out the secrets to the poultry prohibition, at which point Savoy goes rogue.  Savoy is a very cultured man who can be sophisticated one minute and a total badass the next.  John Rhys-Davies has played many sophisticated, erudite characters from Sliders to The Untouchables but can also bring some hardcore badass, as he showed when playing Gimli in The Lord of The Rings.  He’d make an excellent Savoy.

John Colby: Sean William Scott
Originally, John Colby was Tony Chu’s partner in the Philadelphia Police Department, until he took a meat cleaver to the face, putting him in the hospital for months.  After having cybernetic implants put in his head to replace the damaged portions, he’s promoted to the FDA and becomes Chu’s new partner after Savoy defects.  Colby is a loudmouthed, corner cutting, slacker at times but a very good cop and a total badass when the occasion calls for it.  Sean William Scott has played more than his share of loudmouth slackers from American Pie to Role Models but has also done action roles, such as Bulletproof Monk.

Amelia Mintz: Felicia Day
Amelia Mintz, a newspaper food critic, has a similar psychic ability to Tony’s.  She’s called a saboscrivner: when she writes about food, the reader gets the actual flavor and sensation of the food without eating it.  She and Tony first meet when Chu is sent to fire her.  Mintz got tired of her job so she started reviewing only restaurants with failing Health Department grades.  This caused all the readers to violently vomit when reading her reviews.  Chu quickly falls in love with her and the two eventually start dating.  Mintz is a bit mousy and nerdy, but also smart and independent.  Felicia Day played a similar character in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and would be a great physical match for Mintz…if she had blond hair.  But, that’s not a tall order!

Mike Applebee: Ted Levine
When Tony Chu moves from Philadelphia Police Department to the FDA, he has to deal with an angry new boss who is out to make Chu’s life a living Hell.  That boss’s name is Mike Applebee.  Applebee is a curmudgeony, angry, demanding man who is quick to anger and almost always finds some way to take that anger out on Chu.  Ted Levine is an incredibly accomplished and versatile actor who played a similarly cantankerous law enforcement official in the TV show Monk.  Plus, he’s got a fantastic voice for yelling.  He was Wild Bill in Silence of The Lambs and did the voice over work as Rusty Nail in the horror flick Joy Ride.

Chow Chu: Bobby Lee
Tony’s older, less responsible brother and a world class chef, Chow Chu has little respect for the poultry prohibition and makes little secret of it, much to the frustration of Tony, who works to enforce the ban.  Chow is much more easy going than his brother, Tony, and quite a comedic foil as well.  Bobby Lee has made a career as a stand-up comedian, he spent years on Mad TV and would bring a great comedic feel to Chow.

So, there you have it!  Hopefully we’ll get ourselves a real Chew adaptation soon and their cast will be even better than ours.  Thanks for reading!

Ian Candish
Ian@ComicImpact.com