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In terms of the TV business, 2009 was not a stellar year for Calgary-based Nomadic Pictures.

In 2008, the company oversaw $20-million in production. In 2009, zero.

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According producer and co-chairman Chad Oakes, there were plenty of reasons for this. The U.S. economy had tanked. Networks were cutting back on movies-of-the-week. The Canadian dollar was high.

In short, the Alberta film and television industry was suffering. “Beleaguered” was the term the Calgary Herald tended to use when describing it in during that period.

But it was during those jittery days when AMC sent Nomadic Pictures a screenplay for a gritty, post-Civil war western called Hell on Wheels. Nomadic was no stranger to westerns or AMC. Oakes and partner Mike Frislev had produced the Emmy Award-winning Broken Trail in 2007 for the premium cable channel, its first foray into scripted television. By 2009, the network was riding high with critically acclaimed dramas Mad Men and Breaking Bad and wanted to return to its roots.