EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winner Natalie Portman and production partner Sophie Mas signed an initial contract with Apple. Under the multi-year agreement, Apple TV + will take a first look at the television projects to be developed and produced by Portman and Mas through its newly formed producer MountainA. This marks the first production deal for the pair.
The TV deal makes sense for all parties, as Portman, Mas and Apple worked together on the recently announced limited series Original Apple. Lady at the lake, which marked Portman’s debut on TV. She is co-starring with Lupita Nyong’o in the series, directed and co-written by Alma Har’el. All three women serve as executive producers along with Dre Ryan, who will co-create and co-write the series with Har’el, who will write the pilot. Portman and Mas will serve as executive producers through MountainA.
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Natalie Portman and Lupita Nyong’o star in the series ‘Lady In The Lake’ at Apple, by Alma Har’el, Dre Ryan, Jean-Marc Vallée, Bad Wolf and Endeavor Content
Lady In the Lake is an adaptation of Laura Lippman’s bestselling novel of the same name in the New York Times. The limited series takes place in the 1960s in Baltimore, where an unsolved murder pushes housewife and mother Maddie Schwartz (Portman) to reinvent her life as an investigative journalist and puts her on a collision course with Cleo Sherwood (Nyong’o ), a juggling maternity worker, many jobs and a passionate commitment to advance Baltimore’s progressive black agenda.
The series will be produced by Crazyrose and Bad Wolf America, it is produced by Har’el alongside production partner Christopher Leggett through its new producer Zusa. Crazyrose directors Jean-Marc Vallée and Nathan Ross will also serve as executive producers, and Julie Gardner will serve as executive producer on Bad Wolf America. Lippman and Ryan will also serve as executive producers on the project. Endeavor Content is the studio.
Apple TV + has not only become a place that is attracting top talent, but also award-winning female storytellers, with Portman and Mas now joining this group. Apple TV + business talents include Oprah Winfrey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kerry Ehrin, Monica Beletsky, Sharon Horgan and Alena Smith. Apple also recently struck deals with Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón, Jason Katims, Lee Eisenberg and Simon Kinberg. To date, Apple has also signed general and preliminary agreements with companies such as Appian Way, a film and television producer founded by Leonardo DiCaprio and co-directed by Jennifer Davisson; Green Door Pictures, by Idris Elba; Scott Free Productions by Ridley Scott; A24 and Imagine documentaries; as well as with Sesame Workshop and Peanuts.
Furthermore Lady In the Lake, some of Mas’s other production credits include Call me by your name, Ad Astra and Patti Cake $.
Portman is represented by CAA and the Law Firms of George Sheanshang. MountainA is represented by CAA and Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz.