Netflix is doubling down on Italian drama after ordering its latest high-end scripted series Baby. The streaming service has ordered an 8-part coming-of-age story from fledgling Rome producer Fabula Pictures.

The series explores the lives of high school teenagers in Rome and is loosely inspired by a true story, the Baby Squillo scandal, which saw the husband of Mussolini’s grand-daughter caught up in a teen prostitution racket in the Parioli district.

Baby will start production in 2018 and will be written by a young writers’ collective called Grams, which encompasses new writers Antonio Le Fosse, Eleonora Trucchi, Marco Raspanti, Giacomo Mazzariol and Re Salvador. The five writers will be joined by Isabella Aguilar (Grand Hotel) and Giacomo Durzi (In Treatment) in the writers’ room.

It follows Suburra – La Serie, the Mafia drama produced by ITV-owned producer Cattleya, which launched on Netflix last month. Last month, the SVoD service also revealed that it would launch a four-part docu-series about Juventus FC soccer club in 2018.

Baby is exec produced by Nicola De Angelis, co-founder of Fabula Pictures, which has previously produced telemovie Lampedusa for Rai and is currently developing oil spy drama Dragons.

Erik Barmack, VP of International Originals at Netflix, said: “We are proud to continue to invest in original content in Italy, and Baby is representative of the new, edgy programming from talented producers that we cherish. We couldn’t be more excited to start work on this show.”

De Angelis added: “We are very excited to work with Netflix in bringing new voices and stories from Italy to a global audience. The great creative freedom Netflix grants us is the perfect home to break new ground in storytelling for Italian television.”