Enrico Colantoni will star in Canadian drama

Well, we guess producing a show with a Canadian creative and production team is one way around the WGA strike, eh?

CBS and Canada's CTV are joining forces on the police drama "Flashpoint," set to co-star Enrico Colantoni. CBS has already ordered 13 episodes of the drama, which will begin production in Toronto in April.

"Flashpoint" will air on both CBS and CTV, Canada's largest privately owned English language broadcast network. Since the show was originally developed by a Canadian production company (Pink Sky Entertainment) for a Canadian network, CBS' financial exposure has been limited in the pilot process. On the actual series, Pink Sky and Avamar Entertainment will produce with CTV and CBS Paramount Network Television, again spreading cost for the network.

In addition to Colantoni, "Flashpoint" stars Hugh Dillon ("Degrassi: The Next Generation") and David Paetkau ("LAX") and focuses on an elite big city Strategic Response Unit (SRU). Inspired by Toronto's Emergency Task Force, these cops are trained in negotiating and profiling to form a unit that "rescues hostages, busts gangs, defuses bombs, climbs the sides of buildings and talks down suicidal teens."

The series was created by Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern and could be ready to go to air by early summer.

In addition to his work as Papa Mars on UPN and The CW's "Veronica Mars," Colantoni's credits include "Just Shoot Me."