Singapore-based Asian production houses, Beach House Pictures (BHP) and Momo Film Co, are developing their first premium series, “Red Butterfly”, with European producer and distributor, STUDIOCANAL.

The eight-episode crime drama is commissioned by the CANAL+ group and STUDIOCANAL, and produced by STUDIOCANAL in partnership with the Fremantle-owned BHP (“Mr Midnight”) and Momo Film Co (“Don’t Cry, Butterfly”).

News of the landmark project emerged this morning in the run-up to this year’s ATF market, which opens in Singapore on Wednesday.

“Red Butterfly”, set in pre-independence Singapore in the 1950s, is based on a true story about the rise of an all-female gang run by two sisters.

Co-creators Constance Cheng (“Rings of Power”) and Kris Ong (“Ajoomma”) will write the series, with Cheng on board as showrunner.

The fight choreography will be supported by Martial Club (“Everything Everywhere All At Once”), founded by the Le Brothers and Daniel Mah.

The series will be filmed in English and Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia.

STUDIOCANAL’s EVP and VP of global production Ron Halpern and Isobel Carter, and CANAL+ International’s head of content development for Asia, Damiano Malchiodi, said this morning that the ambitious series “disrupts traditional ideas of power, exploring female leadership in a male-dominated criminal world”.

STUDIOCANAL will handle worldwide sales.

The release date has not been confirmed.