When it comes to Cannes during MIPTV, Cineflix is aiming to paint the town… copper.

Presenting its first scripted series, Copper, to the international press today at MIPTV, Cineflix Studios president Christina Wayne said the 10-episode period drama, slated to air on Shaw’s Showcase in the fall, came with its own set of challenges and complications in production, but that they didn’t come from establishing the international partnerships behind the series.

Rather, according to Wayne, the challenges and tests have come from trying to accurately and authentically portray the dirt and grit of New York City in 1864 while doing the bulk of the shooting, save some exteriors, in an abandoned auto factory space in Toronto.

“We built from scratch the entire five-block radius of Five Points,” said Wayne, giving ample credit to production designer John Blackie and costume designer Delphine White. “Every little detail is authentic.”

The auto factory-turned-stage set also served to double for the “uptown” sequences of the show, requiring a tidier and tonier aesthetic, as opposed to what Wayne called the “raw, gritty and visceral” look required for the most part.

Wayne said she’d wanted to create a series that took place in 1800s-era New York since 2005, when she was at AMC and it was beginning its push into original scripted programming. As luck would have it, when she made a call to series co-creator and showrunner Tom Fontana (St. Elsewhere, Borgia), she found out he was interested in mining the same territory.

Copper follows the exploits of Irish-American detective Kevin Corcoran, played by U.K.-based actor Tom Weston-Jones. When Corcoran returns to New York from the Civil War as a member of the city’s Sixth Precinct, he learns his wife has disappeared and their daughter has been murdered.

The series has also been scooped up by German distributor Beta Film for territories including Germany, France, southern and eastern Europe, and Asia, and is distributed in other non-North American territories by Cineflix Rights.

Besides Shaw’s Showcase channel and BBC America, which will premiere it on August 19 as its first entry into the original scripted series sweepstakes, a number of Scandinavian public broadcasters have also bought Copper, including SVT in Sweden, YLE in Finland, NRK in Norway, and Iceland’s RUV.

Created by Fontana and writer Will Rokos (Monster’s Ball), and with Academy Award-winning director, screenwriter and producer Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Diner) joining Wayne, Fontana, Rokos, Cineflix co-founders Glen Salzman and Katherine Buck, and Cineflix Studios EVP Sally Catto as exec producers, Copper is getting a major push at the market, with the hopes that more international buyers will take a shining to the crime drama.

In addition to Weston-Jones, its multinational cast, including German-born actress Franka Potente (The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supermacy), Irish actor Kevin Ryan and Toronto natives Dylan Taylor and Kyle Schmid (pictured, Being Human), could help to bolster its global allure.

And the timing of bringing a new period drama to cable, in the era of Downton Abbey and Mad Men, might make it a less risky proposition for buyers as well.

The production team began block shooting the series’ first season in late January and plans to wrap in May.

From there, it’ll take some time to tell if Copper will turn to gold.