Amazon Prime Video has ordered “Butterfly,” a new scripted drama series based on Arash Amel’s Boom Studios graphic novel of the same name. The series will star and be executive produced by Daniel Dae Kim.
The six-episode spy thriller will be set in the world of global espionage. It centers around David Jung, a mysterious and unpredictable former U.S. intelligence operative living in South Korea. When an impossible decision from his past comes back to haunt him, David’s life is blown to pieces as he’s hunted by Rebecca, a deadly and sociopathic agent assigned to kill him.
Kim is attached to star in the series and will also executive produce through his production studio, 3AD, under their first-look deal with Amazon Studios. Ken Woodruff (“The Mentalist,” “Gotham”) will serve as showrunner and co-creator of the adaptation alongside acclaimed novelist Steph Cha. Cha is best known for her crime fiction work and is the author of “Follow Her Home,” “Beware Beware” and “Dead Soon Enough.”
The series will premiere on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide and is expected to go into production after all guild negotiations have been resolved.
Both Woodruff and Cha will executive produce. Additionally, Kim and Cheng will executive produce for 3AD; Stephen Christy and Ross Richie will executive produce for BOOM! Studios, with Adam Yoelin serving as co-executive producer; and Arash Amel will executive produce for The Amel Company.
With “Butterfly,” Prime Video is continuing a brand it’s built for itself. The streamer is already home to several big-name thrillers that revel in the world of spies and U.S. agents, from John Krasinski’s “Jack Ryan” and Alan Ritchson’s “Reacher” to its latest big-budget original, the Priyanka Chopra-starring “Citadel.” It also continues the e-commerce hub’s habit of adapting shows from big name authors. The aforementioned “Jack Ryan” is based on Tom Clancy’s novels of the same name, and “Reacher” comes from Lee Child. Then there’s Taylor Jenkins Reid’s “Daisy Jones and the Six,” Jenny Han’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and, of course, “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” which was only made with approval from Tolkien’s estate.
