Academy Award-winners Lupita Nyong’o and Natalie Portman have landed lead roles in the television adaptation of Laura Lippman’s best-selling novel Lady in the Lake, according to Variety.
The Apple TV+ series will be co-created, co-written, and directed by Honey Boy’s Alma Har’el. Dre Ryan (The Man In The High Castle) serves as co-creator and co-writer.
The novel is set in the 1960s and takes place in Baltimore. It follows housewife Madeline “Maddie” Schwartz (Portman), who starts working as an investigative journalist after helping the police solve a murder. While looking for the next story, Maddie gets involved in a case of a missing person, an African-American mother of two boys named Cleo Sherwood (Nyong’o), whose body gets discovered in the city park.
Lady in the Lake will be the first lead role in a series for Natalie Portman. Her previous television appearances include voice work for The Simpsons and a guest role on TBS’s sitcom Angie Tribeca.
Lupita Nyong’o portrayed Ayira in MTV’s Shuga and lent her voice to Maz Kanata in the animation series Star Wars: Forces of Destiny and Star Wars: Rebels. Nyong’o was previously attached to star in HBO’s adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Americanah but had to leave the project due to scheduling conflict.
