ABC has become the latest U.S. network to acquire a Canadian cop drama, this time by picking up Global Television’s Copper.

The alphabet network picked up 13 episodes of the character-driven series about five rookie cops fresh from a police academy from E1 Television, the Canadian producer that also sold CTV’s The Bridge to CBS.

‘Our goal obviously is to find the right U.S. home for all our shows that get commissioned in Canada,’ E1 Television’s John Morayniss said Wednesday.

The latest U.S. deal did not include a pilot. ABC bought the series based on a draft script and a pitch in March by veteran Canadian screenwriters Ilana Frank and Tassie Cameron.

Frank initially brought the project to Global Television as part of a first-look deal with her production company, Thump.

E1 Television was then brought on board to help finance the series, while Cameron was hired to showrun the series. After Global made a straight-to-series order for 13 episodes of Copper, Cameron and Frank in March pitched the drama to ABC Entertainment Group president Stephen McPherson and other Hollywood studio development execs.

U.S. network interest in Copper was encouraged by Cameron also being head writer on the first season of Flashpoint, a breakout hit for CBS and CTV.

Cameron created the series along with Morwyn Berbner and Ellen Vanstone. E1 Television’s Morayniss and Noreen Halpern will executive produce Copper.

E1 Television has a third Canadian cop drama, Shattered, before the U.S. networks. Morayniss is optimistic about a U.S. network pickup deal for that series.

Global has also ordered Shattered, a character-driven cop series that stars Callum Keith Rennie and Laura Jordan, as a pilot for its development slate.

The current sales success for E1 Television with the U.S. networks is the culmination of a decade of preparation by former Blueprint Entertainment principals Morayniss and Halpern, who came together under the E1 banner last year along with Laszlo Barna’s Barna-Alper Productions.

Morayniss says the combination of himself and Halpern, who have deep roots in L.A., and Barna’s expertise with cop dramas that date back to Da Vinci’s Inquest and earlier, has brought comfort to cost-conscious U.S. networks suddenly keen to partner with the Canadians on series.

‘Securing a 13-episode series order from two premier networks [ABC and CBS] is a testament to E1’s position as a leading creative supplier of programming. Our ability to combine our creative auspices, business acumen and alternative sources of financing makes our shows very appealing to U.S. buyers,’ Morayniss argues.

E1 Television also sold Hung to HBO and Testees to FX in the U.S. market.

Other Canadian series in U.S. primetime include Shaftesbury Films’ The Listener on NBC and Fox International.

Canwest Global’s Christine Shipton says Copper will be delivered in the summer for a fall 2009 simulcast of the series along with ABC.