Academy Award winner Natalie Portman along with producing partner Sophie Mas has signed a first-look multi-year deal with Apple TV+. As part of the deal, Apple will have a first look on television projects that will be developed and produced by Portman and Mas via their production company MountainA.
The production deal, that is a first for the duo, follows the announcement of the Apple original series ‘Lady In The Lake’ that stars Natalie Portman, who also serves as its executive producer alongside Sophie Mas, co-star Lupita Nyong’o, director Alma Har’el, co-creator and co-writer Dre Ryan.
‘Lady in the Lake’ is an adaptation of Laura Lippman’s New York Times best-selling novel of the same name. The limited series takes place in ’60s Baltimore, where an unsolved murder pushes housewife and mother Maddie Schwartz (Portman) to reinvent her life as an investigative journalist and sets her on a collision course with Cleo Sherwood (Nyong’o), a hard-working woman juggling motherhood, many jobs and a passionate commitment to advancing Baltimore’s Black progressive agenda.
Portman and Mas’ agreement with Apple TV+ joins its list of many deals inked with several A-list female talents like Oprah Winfrey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kerry Ehrin, Monica Beletsky, Sharon Horgan and Alena Smith. Other than this, Apple also has various overall and first-look deals that include those with Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón, Jason Katims, Lee Eisenberg, Simon Kinberg, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions, Robert Downey Jr.’s Team Downey, Idris Elba’s Green Door Pictures, Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions and many more.