Benedict & Nancy Freedman's classic novel set in the woods and prairies of the Canadian Northwest has never been out of print since 1947. However, the love story between a young woman and a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer was reissued in 2002, and expanded into a trilogy with two additional novels: "The Search for Joyful" and "Kathy's Little Bird."

"The country is good to men and dogs; it is not good to women and horses," said a statement from the the Norman Jewison Canadian Film Centre in Toronto.

There will be three movies, to follow the trilogy of books.