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Wavelength Productions is giving shine to more underrepresented voices with its second annual Wave Grant, which stands for “Women at the Very Edge.” The grant helps first-time, female or non-binary filmmakers of color with the production of their first short documentary or narrative film. This year’s recipients include Fiona Kida, Camille Ramos, and Geena Hernandez.

The three filmmakers will receive $5,000 grant as well as mentorship in the producing, development and post-production of their story as well as fundraising and distribution strategy.

Wavelength, which is the production company behind Sundance pics Feels Good Man and Farewell Amor, received an overwhelming number of candidates and as a result, they tripled their current initiative with the aforementioned three winners.

“Wavelength is honored to expand the Wave Grant to include Fiona, Camille, and Geena to pursue their careers as young filmmakers,” said Jenifer Westphal, Founder, CEO and Executive Producer at Wavelength. “We found their projects to be nuanced,...

ABC is developing Guerrillas, a single-camera comedy starring comedian Al Madrigal and Jane the Virgin alum Jaime Camil. It comes from Jennie Snyder Urman’s Sutton Street Productions and CBS Studios where the company is based.

In Guerrillas, co-written by Madrigal and Matt Kellard (Night School), when Miles Flores (Madrigal), a lonely efficiency expert for an oil company, gets kidnapped in South America, he ends up working for a disorganized group of guerrilla soldiers to earn back his freedom. Camil plays the “Commandante” (leader) of the soldiers who kidnapped Miles.

Madrigal and Kelland executive produce alongside Urman and Joanna Klein via Sutton Street. Camil co-executive produces.

Guerrillas reunites Urman, Camil and Madrigal who recently worked together on the CBS comedy series Broke. Camil starred in and executive produced the sitcom, on which Madrigal recurred in addition to being a writer/co-executive producer. Urman, along with Klein, executive produced via Sutton Street.

Exclusive: NBC has put in development The A Word, a drama based on the Israeli series Yellow Peppers, from writer Arika Mittman (Paradise Lost), Keshet Studios and Universal Television.

Keshet Broadcasting and July August Prods.’ Yellow Peppers, created by Keren Margalit, ran for two seasons in Israel between 2010-14. It has spawned several format adaptations to date, including the British version, The A Word, which has aired two seasons on BBC. Keshet Studios, the LA-based division of the Israeli media firm, and Universal TV, part of Universal Studio Group, set out to develop a U.S. broadcast incarnation of the Israeli show last year.

Written by Mittman, The A Word is a character drama that explores a family’s emotional journey of raising their young son with autism.

Mittman executive produces with Keshet Studios’ Peter Traugott, along with Avi Nir for Keshet Media Group, Alon Shtruzman for Keshet International and Karni Ziv for Keshet Broadcasting.

Exclusive: CBS has put in development two dramas executive produced by Jane the Virgin developer/showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman via her Sutton St. Productions – Danni Delgado, an adaptation of the 2010 German series Danni Lowinski with a Latina lead, from writer Nicki Renna (Charmed), Tariq Jalil’s Intrigue Entertainment and Red Arrow Studios International; and The System from writer Elaine Del Valle (Brownsville Bred), with Jane the Virgin alumna Andrea Navedo executive producing and potentially starring and Arika Mittman (Paradise Lost) also executive producing. CBS Studios, where Urman is under an overall deal, is the studio for both projects, with Urman and Joanna Klein executive producing via Sutton St.

This marks the third U.S. attempt to adapt Danni Lowinski, about a scrappy hairdresser who graduates from law school and sets up her own practice in a shopping mall kiosk. In 2010, the CW ordered a pilot for an American version written by Snyder Urman,...

“American Hangman” belongs to that species of grade-z movie that’s at once grisly and pretentious. It’s trash with a lot on its mind. Most of the film is set in a dim concrete bunker, where Henry, an “intellectual” psychopath played by Vincent Kartheiser in the heaviest bowl cut I have ever seen (his inky bangs hang down to the point that they threaten to devour his face), has shackled a pair of prisoners as though setting them up for a game of “Saw.” (The comparison is so obvious that it’s referenced by the film in the opening five minutes.) He gives the mouthier of the two prisoners a series of electric shocks, then cuts off his finger with a garden shears, a few minutes before shooting him dead.

But “American Hangman” isn’t torture porn. The movie turns into a dialectical showdown between the psycho and his other hostage,...

Exclusive: Writer-director Dallas Jackson, whose Blumhouse feature film Thriller made its world premiere at this year’s Los Angeles Film Festival, has signed with Apa.

Jackson’s current slate of film projects include The System with Ludacris attached to star, RZA directing/producing alongside Divide/Conquer and Xyz handling global sales. The movie is scheduled to start production next summer.

Jackson is also set to direct Welcome to Sudden Death at Universal this spring.

The Last Dragon, which Jackson wrote, is in development at Columbia with Samuel L. Jackson attached to star.

In television, the filmmaker is executive producing Rebel for Bet with iconic film director John Singleton and writing Straight Out of Heaven with Singleton for Wbtv, and co-writing Ghost Dog with RZA for Alcon Entertainment, with Forrest Whitaker and Jim Jarmusch attached to executive produce. Jackson is also repped by Thruline, and Jackoway Tyerman Wertheimer.

If your guilty pleasures expand to include Hallmark-style sentimentality this time of year, you might consider adding “Dumplin'” to your viewing lineup. It has nothing to do with the holiday season, but it’s wrapped as neatly as any gift you might find under a Christmas tree.

Though directed by rom-com vet Anne Fletcher and written by producer Kristin Hahn (“The Departed”), this modest dramedy — which is being released simultaneously in theaters and on Netflix — is a far better fit for the small screen. But a big heart and strong cast go a long way towards elevating its prosaic approach.

Most of the credit goes to the two leads, Jennifer Aniston and Danielle Macdonald, who play a markedly mismatched mother and daughter. Aniston’s strenuously meticulous Rosie was, as she’ll happily remind anyone who asks, 1991’s Miss Teen Blue Bonnet. This might not seem like much to us,...

Miracle of miracles — last year’s Best Picture Oscar winner went to a genuine monster movie! Guillermo del Toro’s overachieving Gill Man spectacle features a gratifyingly anti-authoritarian attitude. The emotional love story is as pure as a silent movie — and has the sentimental commitment to pull an audience into its dreamy Fairy Tale horror fantasy.

The Shape of Water

Blu-ray

20th Fox Home Entertainment

2017 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date March 13, 2018 / 29.99

Starring: Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Doug Jones, David Hewlett, Nick Searcy, Stewart Arnott, Nigel Bennett, Lauren Lee Smith.

Cinematography: Dan Laustsen

Film Editor: Sidney Wolinsky

Original Music: Alexandre Desplat

Written by Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor

Produced by Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale

Directed by Guillermo del Toro

My favorite film from last year is The Shape of Water. After at least six viewings it still scores high in my estimation,...