Canadian indie producer Sienna Films has found a home for its historical costume drama The Heretics after parcelling out the domestic rights to The Movie Network, Movie Central and Shaw Media.

Sienna Films developed the 12-part series with French production partner Breakout Films. The drama delves into the lives of heretical sisters battling the Catholic church 800 years ago .

Canadian screenwriter Laura Phillips (Combat Hospital, Murdoch Mysteries) penned the screenplay for The Heretics with Italian Giacomo Battiato, who will also direct the series.

Production on the one-hour drama, structured as a Canada-France coproduction, is set to take place in summer 2012 in France and Hungary.

The Heretics is the latest Canadian coproduced drama to bring Vatican intrigue to the masses.

The Borgias portrayed a Renaissance family that bought the papacy for its patriarch, while The Tudors, also a Canada-U.K. coproduction, exposed tensions between the Catholic Church and Henry VIII.

The Heretics is produced by Jennifer Kawaja and Julia Sereny of Sienna Films and Georges Campana of Breakout Films.