21st Century Fox’s Hong Kong-based pay-TV group Fox Intl. Channels is to

21st Century Fox’s Hong Kong-based pay-TV group Fox Intl. Channels is to back “Guilty As Sin,” an Asian mini-series that will begin production later this year.

Budgets on the 6-8 episode series, which will tell a contemporary Hong Kong-set story, are expected to be around US$1 million per episode.

Production is led by former Warner Bros. executive Mia Hsia.

Later in the year FIC expects to green light another, untitled “Asian scale” series, about an Asian-American sniper. It will likely be shot in English and destined for a regional or global audience.

The move into original content production by pay-TV groups is a well-established trend in North America and Europe, but is relatively new in Asia.

The FIC initiative is spearheaded by Cora Yim, senior VP of content and head of its Chinese-language entertainment. The series will air first on FIC’s Star Chinese Movies Channel.

Yim and FIC have previously backed a handful of feature films including Singaporean director Jack Neo’s “Ah Boys To Men: Frogmen” and the currently-on-release Hong Kong-made erotic drama “Sara.”

Yim says that she expects to bring other partners onto the series, and to announce a director, in the next months.

via www.variety.com