Via press release we learned of producer Effie T. Brown’s ambitious new production and development slate — eight pictures ranging from a horror movie with a black cast to a couple of period dramas. She also announced that her production company, Duly Noted, has a first-look deal with HBO’s Original Programming Department.

Brown, who received the IFP Producing Spirit Award three years ago, has been a producer on several HBO movies, including Real Women Have Curves, and The Stranger Inside, and she was also Executive Producer of Jane Campion’s hugely underrated In the Cut, which is on cable a lot these days if you haven’t seen it. Her new projects are from such directors as Silas Howard (By Hook or By Crook), Jeffrey Blitz (Spellbound), and Ben Berkowitz (Straightman).

Describing the films, the release writes, ” The Duly Noted line-up includes a period biopic about a legendary transgendered jazz pianist; a gritty urban drama depicting working class Blacks and Jews living in a Polish neighborhood in Chicago; a satirical comedy about a group of directionless thirtysomethings; a poignant coming of age story that charts the joys and travails of a Puerto Rican boy and his military family living in 1970s Georgia; and a horror film featuring a predominately Black cast.”

The first film to be produced is Cold Kiss, directed by Wendy Rubin and financed with funds from the German Hettleman-Berger Film Fund.