CBC has ordered a multi-platform project from Apartment 11 Productions that will send the Montreal shop on a cross-country road trip this summer, looking for « the funnest place in Canada. »

Viewers of Cross Country Fun Hunt will nominate their towns or neighborhoods online and watch as a celebrity host travels the country checking out the local attractions. The project is aimed at 8-12s.

« It can be something as basic as ‘We’ve got the best clam shack in the country,' » producer Jonathan Finkelstein told C21. « It doesn’t always have to be something huge and glamourous. »

The online nominations and summer time road trip will lead into a 13×30′ series, to air in the fall, which will recount the travels before revealing the winning location in the finale.

« The TV end of things is wholly dependent on the online, » said Finkelstein. « The kids will control what’s going on. »

The series goes into production while Apartment 11 works to go beyond the live-action kids’ fare that has so far defined the bulk of its catalogue. The company also makes the race/reality In Real Life for YTV, now in its third season, and next month will see its educational Finding Stuff Out debut on TVOntario.

But Bravo! (Canada) recently greenlit the shop’s 13×60′ documentary series Way Off Broadway (formerly Broadway Bootcamp) and Finkelstein says Apartment 11 plans to pursue other factual series for grown-ups, building on the work of development exec Alberta Nokes. Nokes brought the Broadway project with her when she joined the company last fall.

« We’re definitely branching out into series for 18-54s in the factual and reality space, » he said. This is partly because there aren’t enough broadcasters in Canada who buy factual and reality kids’ shows, he added.

In the meantime, Apartment 11 is developing The Infernal World of Dr Druce, a live-action/animated hybrid and « reality adventure gameshow » for Teletoon. It has also optioned the novel Bonechiller by Graham McNamee with plans to turn it into a feature film.

The jump from series to a theatrical feature is a « bit of a leap » for Apartment 11’s business model, said Finkelstein, « but it’s not a leap creatively. »

The company is also exploring its format options and, in hand with format maestro Michel Rodrigue of The Format People, is in talks with an unspecified but « major Canadian network » on a grown-up, primetime project similar to In Real Life.