CBS is turning on the red lights for "Canal Street Brothel," an original movie based on the true story of a grandmother, mother and daughter in New Orleans who ran a bordello out of their house in a quiet residential neighborhood.

For years, the brothel ran smoothly with Jeanette Maier as the madam, her mother Tommie Montemayor taking reservations and her daughter Monica Taylor working as a prostitute. Business was good, bringing in $5,000-$10,000 a week and boasting a client roster that included the power gentry of Southern business, politics and law enforcement. But after a four-month FBI investigation, with agents tapping the women's phone, the three were arrested Sept. 18, 2001.

The case drew additional attention because the FBI's investigation coincided with the months leading up to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, raising questions about the efficiency of FBI's efforts to fight terrorism.

Vincent Patrick ("Gotti") will write the script for the project, now in development, based in part on Maier's diary. Atchity Entertainment International and Orly Adelson Prods. are producing; AEI's Ken Atchity and Chi-Li Wong are executive producing with Orly Adelson.

"What drew me to the story is that it was a powerfully multigenerational crisis focused around the love-hate relationship of a mother, her mother and her daughter that just happens on the backdrop of a brothel in New Orleans -- seen through the microscope of an FBI investigation," Atchity said.

Atchity, a Louisiana native, said he felt that CBS would be the best home for the telefilm because the network first brought the story of the Canal Street brothel to TV audiences with an hourlong "48 Hours" special earlier this year.

At CBS, the project is overseen by Joan Yee.

AEI, which reps Maier, brokered the deal with CBS along with Orly Adelson Prods.' Jon Eskenas, the Becsey, Wisdom, Kalajian agency and the law firm of Joel McKuin of Colden, McKuin & Frankel.