ALBERTA

• In addition to season two of CBC series Heartland, Calgary’s Seven24 Films is posting a one-hour drama pilot, Cow Girls (also for CBC), which centers on several families entrenched in Alberta’s oil and ranching businesses. The prodco is also in post on the $15-million Canada/U.K. copro Burn Up (starring Neve Campbell), a four-hour conspiracy thriller miniseries for Global and the BBC

• Calgary’s Alberta Filmed Entertainment goes to camera Jan. 20 with the ABC Family Christmas movie Snow 2 (starring Tom Cavanagh)

• Nomadic Pictures’ Lifetime/W movie Daughter of the Bride (with Joanna Garcia, Helen Shaver, Luke Perry and Kenneth Welsh), began lensing Jan. 14 in Calgary

• German company VideoScope is returning to shoot the latest installment of the ZDF anthology series In the Valley of Wild Roses in Calgary

• Edmonton’s winter schedule includes the APTN sketch comedy series Caution: May Contain Nuts (which is just wrapping production with new company Mosaic Entertainment), and the big-budget NBC TV horror anthology series Fear Itself from Lionsgate Films starts principal photography in February

SASKATCHEWAN

• At the end of January, Minds Eye Entertainment will start shooting two yet-to-be-announced features back-to-back at the Canada Saskatchewan Production Studios. Company president Kevin DeWalt is also in final discussion on two additional copros – one with Britain and the other with France. Either (or both) might shoot this year

• Seasons three and four of the APTN/SCN animated kids series Wapos Bay, from Dark Thunder Productions, and another round of the APTN/SCN half-hour drama Rabbit Fall, from Angel Entertainment will shoot

• 291 Film Company and its principal Ian Toews are in production on season four of its flagship doc series Landscape as Muse (which has shot from Newfoundland to the Yukon) for Bravo! and SCN

• Cycle six of Vérité Films’ Corner Gas for The Comedy Network and CTV

MANITOBA

• Buffalo Gal Pictures is coproducing the $7-million Citytv comedy series Less than Kind (with Toronto-based Breakthrough Films and Television), which wraps Jan. 31

• Original Pictures is opening an additional office in Toronto in March to focus on development and production, according to president Kim Todd.

Original is developing a two-hour TV movie with CTV based on the true story of a group of regular guys who formed a Canadian cricket team that scored a major upset at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. It’s at the script stage with writer David Young

• Frantic Films has shot several pilots that may bring new series work to the province. The prodco is currently posting the CBC pilot The City Next Door, a half-hour comedy created by Garry Campbell (Mad TV, Kids in the Hall); and additional scripts have been ordered for the development phase of Retail, a half-hour comedy series for Showcase.

Also in development is Todd and the Book of Pure Evil, a copro with Aircraft Pictures of Toronto, for Space and The Comedy Network. The series is set in a high school and centers on a book that gives unlimited power to the beholder and makes their wishes come true

• Farpoint Films will shoot six half-hours of House Party – about a group of university students who have a house party that goes way out of control – for Comedy beginning in March. The Prodco is also going forward with a $2.5-million teen sex comedy Wild Cherry, to be directed by Dana Lustig (Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber) and coproduced with Vancouver’s Rampage Entertainment, with National Lampoon distributing. Written by Winnipeg’s Chris Charney, it’s the story of a group of high school students who make a pact not to lose their virginity before graduation