Apple snagged Lady in the Lake for a straight-to-series order. Lady in the Lake is a limited series directed and co-written by Alma Har’el and will co-star two Academy Award winners, Natalie Portman and Lupita Nyong’o. All three women will serve as executive producers. Series co-creator and co-writer Dre Ryan will also join them as an executive producer.
Lady in the Lake is an adaptation of Laura Lippman’s New York Times best-selling novel of the same name. Per Apple, the limited series takes place in ’60s Baltimore, where an unsolved murder pushes housewife and mother Maddie Schwartz to reinvent her life as an investigative journalist and sets her on a collision course with Cleo Sherwood, a hard-working woman juggling motherhood, many jobs, and a passionate commitment to advancing Baltimore’s Black progressive agenda. Portman will play the role of Maddie Schwartz, and Nyong’o is in the role of Cleo Sherwood.
Crazyrose produces apple’s newest series, and Bad Wolf America Crazyrose principals Jean-Marc Vallée and Nathan Ross will serve as executive producers. Julie Gardner will executive produce for Bad Wolf America. Author Laura Lippman will also executive produce on the project. Endeavor Content is the studio.
Lady in the Lake is Natalie Portman’s first go at a television series and Alma Har’el’s first television project. Har’el’s most recent film, Honey Boy, won her the Sundance 2019 Special Jury Directing Award for Craft and Vision, received four Independent Spirit Awards nominations, including Best Director, and made her the first woman to win the DGA Award for First-Time Feature Film. She is also the first woman in DGA Awards history to be nominated for commercial directing and narrative directing.
The Portman and Nyong’o led series joins Apple TV+’s growing roster of award-winning television series, including the Golden Globe and multiple Critics’ Choice Award-winning Ted Lasso; Emmy, Critics Choice, and SAG award-winning and Golden Globe Award-nominated series The Morning Show.
More news to come on when the series makes its debut.
