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David Tennant, best known for his long-running gig as one of the doctors in BBC cult hit Doctor Who, has joined the voice cast of Chew, the animated feature adaptation of the popular comic from Image Comics, taking over for a part that was originally going to be filled by Robin Williams.
Walking Dead star Steven Yeun and Felicia Day, the creator of web series The Guild, are already on the roll call for the project, which has a script by Chew co-creator John Layman. (Layman writes the book while Rob Guillory does the art.)
Jeff Krelitz, who helmed the animated Torchwood: Web of Lies and Peter Panzerfaust, is directing the project. He is also producing with David Boxenbaum via Heavy Metal, the duo’s multimedia company.
Chew centers on a detective (Yeun) who is a “cibopath,” a person who gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats, and is set in a world where bird meats are illegal after bird flu killed millions of Americans. (Day is his love interest, a food critic who can write about food so precisely the reader actually feels like they are tasting it.)
Tennant is voicing Mason Savoy, the detective’s mentor-turned-villain.
Yeun and Day recorded their parts last year, but Tennant was working this week. Work on the project stalled last year due to Williams’ death.
The producers were in negotiation process with Williams, a comic book reader and a fan of both Chew and the Heavy Metal magazine, when the actor-comedian committed suicide. The producers took time to regroup before seeking a new actor.
Tennant, repped by UTA and Independent Talent Group, recently starred in the new season of BBC’s crime drama Broadchurch and will be seen as the villain in Marvel’s Netflix series Jessica Jones.
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