Shaftesbury Films will see its first project with Kelly Rowan go to air this month, just as a second starts shooting in rural Ontario. The MOW Eight Days to Live, which Rowan (The O.C., The Man Who Saved Christmas) exec produced with the Toronto prodco, is set to air May 28 on CTV and will be followed by In God’s Country, a TV movie about Mormon polygamy.

Rowan again exec produces and stars as a woman who flees her husband and their Mormon community with her five children. Further casting is underway, with production due to start by late May or June.

‘It’s really a dramatic story of what’s going on in certain sects in the Mormon faith,’ says Shaftesbury’s Christina Jennings, and was inspired by last year’s allegations of abuse in the polygamous community in Bountiful, BC.

Jennings notes that the hot topic got hotter still with the well-received debut of the HBO series Big Love, also about a multiple-mom family. ‘But our story is not in anyway light.’

Shaftesbury go-to guy John L’Ecuyer (ReGenesis, The Murdoch Mysteries) directs the script by Esta Spalding (Falling Angels) on a $4-million to $5-million budget, backed by CTV’s Heroes, Champions and Villains fund and a presale to Lifetime. Rowan exec produces with Jennings.

Shaftesbury will also see its 11 Cameras – a drama about the voyeuristic world of web cams – go to air on CBC on June 22. The 22 x 30 series is closing in its final weeks of shooting and is expected to air twice weekly through the summer, at 7:30 p.m., following the strong but unusual lead-in of Coronation Street.

L’Ecuyer again directs, with Gail Harvey (Terry), Ron Murphy (Jeff Ltd.) and others. The series is voyeuristic without being racy, says Jennings, and will come with a large online presence with help from the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund.

The Toronto company is also lending a hand to the BBC, service shooting what looks to be a very high-profile 6 x 60 miniseries, The State Within. The 80-day production is in town until July, which Jennings hopes will draw more work from across the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, Shaftesbury is wrapping another MOW, Me and Luke, for Lifetime and Movie Central. Eleanore Lindo (Touching Wild Horses) directs a cast that includes Louise Fletcher (the infamous Nurse Ratched of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), Kristopher Turner (Instant Star, Dark Oracle) and Lindsay Ames (Eleventh Hour, Beautiful People).