CTV has acquired rights for the prequel Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning from Toronto-based Sullivan Entertainment and plans to make it a three-hour movie and television event in 2008.

The prodco found its newest Anne Shirley through a recent casting call on YouTube and a cross-Canada audition tour. Toronto’s Hannah Endicott-Douglas (The Good Witch, Samantha: An American Girl) was chosen to star alongside Rachel Blanchard (7th Heaven) and Barbara Hershey (Hannah and Her Sisters), who plays Anne as a woman in her fifties reflecting on her past.

‘To say that we are ‘excited’ about bringing the Anne of Green Gables franchise to CTV would be an understatement,’ said Kevin Sullivan, president of the Toronto company, in a statement, noting that he and CTVgm boss Ivan Fecan worked together at CBC in the early 1990s.

The net also picked up about 128 hours of content from Sullivan, including the original three Anne of Green Gables mini-series; the Emmy Award-winning series Road to Avonlea and The Magic Flute Diaries. Production on the new Anne title is underway.

From Media in Canada