A&E Networks has teamed with Toronto’s Microtainment Plus International, Mansion Productions, High Road Productions and Montreal’s Verseau International to produce in Canada a handful of docs set to run on the network beginning later this year.

Toronto’s Microtainment is currently in production on Cartier: From Jeweler to the Kings to the King of Jewelers for a&e’s Biography series. It has completed production on Peace, Love and Murder, the story of ’60s cultural revolutionary Ira Einhorn.

The two properties represent a combined budget of over $1 million. Peace, Love and Murder will run as part of Bill Kurtis’ Investigative Reports and has been syndicated in 40 world markets (where the project’s title will be Pursuit) by London’s Mayfair Entertainment.

Microtainment is also in preproduction on the Dick and Tracy series for cbc and has an animated project in development with Amberwood called Angel Academy.

Toronto’s High Road Productions is in production on a feature-length documentary. The show will run as an a&e special presentation in late 1998.

Mansion, comprising AJE Productions’ Amanda Enright and Ian McCleod of pbg, has partnered with a&e on the production of its second Haunted Houses feature documentary for the network. McLeod (W5) is directing and Enright executive producing the project, which is shooting at various locations in the u.s. as well as Lucan, Ont. on the site of the allegedly haunted house of members of the Black Donnelly clan.

Mansion is working exclusively with a&e on the mid-range budget production, scheduled to run next year.

Haunted Houses will again feature dramatic segments, these directed by Laurie Lynd, a Canadian Film Centre alum who is currently working on a feature project with a u.k. partner.

Montreal’s Verseau International is producing a two-hour documentary called Cults and New Religions, coproduced with Canal d. The show looks at the rise of religious cults in Europe and North America.

The show was done originally with Canal d in five episodes for a French audience at about $285,000 an episode. A new version is currently being assembled with new footage and editing style for the u.s. market, with Jean-Guy Montpetit directing and editing. A shorter version will also run again on Canal d, with La Cinquieme having French-language rights for the show for Europe.