Toronto’s Shaftesbury Films and Regina’s Heartland Motion Pictures are partnering up on $20 million worth of television movies set for production in Saskatchewan.

Deadly Appearances is the first of five two-hour tv movies based on Saskatchewan writer Gail Bowen’s series of mystery novels. Deadly Appearances is being developed by the copartners with Baton Broadcasting Systems. Jeremy Hole, who has penned scripts for Wind At My Back and Night Heat, wrote the screenplay. Kate Nelligan will star as heroine Joanne Kilbourn. The shoot is tentatively set for early September in Saskatchewan, with a mid-October wrap date. A director is yet to be named.

Conquest, a one-off tv special, is being coproduced by Shaftesbury’s Christina Jennings and Heartland’s Stephen Onda, with cbc as a development partner. The screenplay comes from Saskatchewan native Rob Forsyth, who wrote the feature Clearcut and has penned episodes of tv series like The Outer Limits and North of 60.

The romantic comedy follows an elderly woman and a young female traveler from Britain who are captivated by a handsome dreamer who refuses to give up on the small Saskatchewan town of Conquest.

The cast has not been lined up, but Britain’s Piers Haggard (Dennis Potter’s Pennies From Heaven) will direct. Onda is looking at a summer shoot on the outskirts of Regina.

Jennings and Onda teamed up last fall on Painted Angels (formerly titled Prairie Doves), which is still in post-production.