Lady in the Lake is an upcoming drama miniseries starring Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram. Based on Laura Lippman’s novel of the same name, it has been co-written by Alma Har’el and Dre Ryan. Lippman spent twenty years as a reporter, twelve of which she spent at The Baltimore Sun. She was inspired to write the novel by twisted true crime stories, particularly two real-life disappearances of a girl and a young woman that occurred in the 1960s in Baltimore. Although the real-life deaths were unrelated, Lippman decided to use them as inspiration to create a story where their lives were tied together, creating her protagonist Maddie Schwartz, who one day decides to become a crime reporter.

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Lippman’s novels have been incredibly successful, so it’s no surprise that the idea to turn Lady in the Lake into a miniseries was accepted straight away. Lady in the Lake was officially underway in March and was picked up as an Apple TV+ series. Filming began in April this year in Baltimore, specifically around Pikesville and Loch Raven Reservoir, and Portman will be executive producer alongside partner Sophie Mas.

Here is everything else we know about the upcoming series.

Lady in the Lake: The Plot

     Skydance Media

Much like the novel, the show will follow an investigative journalist, Maddie Schwartz, who decides to pursue her career after becoming bored with being a housewife. Leaving her husband, she begins investigating two unsolved murder cases with partner Cleo Sherwood. While dealing with clashes and confrontations with Sherwood, Schwartz quickly becomes attached and obsessed with the secrets and mysteries surrounding the crimes.

This plot sounds like something juicy to sink our teeth into for any murder mystery or crime drama fans who love solving the case themselves.

Lady in the Lake: The Cast

     Netflix

Fans love crime dramas that have captivating storylines and crazy plot twists. But we also love to get dropped into the characters’ complicated lives, with their sneaky secrets and unraveling histories. Lady in the Lake will surely be just as exciting with a fantastic cast to bring the characters to life. Natalie Portman, of course, is not only producing but will star as the show’s main protagonist, Maddie Schwartz. She is a complicated investigator longing for a more exciting and adventurous life.

Portman has been in an array of movies, most recently well known over the past decade for her roles in Black Swan and her appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Thor, Thor: The Dark World, and Thor: Love and Thunder.

Maddie Schwartz’s partner, Cleo Sherwood, was initially supposed to be played by Lupita Nyong’o, who exited the series soon after it was announced. Moses Ingram was then cast in the role. Ingram is best known for playing Jolene in 2020’s hit Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit. The part led the actress to be nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress. More recently, Star Wars fans will also recognize Ingram from the Disney+ miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi as Reva Sevander/The Third Sister. We cannot wait to see what she does as Sherwood in this drama.

We can also expect to see Y’Lan Noel as Ferdie, who will be best known for appearing in 2018’s The First Purge; Mikey Madison as Judith, who appeared on our screens earlier this year in Scream, as well as Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood; and the fantastic Brett Gelman, best known for playing hilarious Murray Bauman in Netflix’s supernatural hit Stranger Things, and appearing in BBC comedy Fleabag.

More recent cast additions have also been announced, including Byron Bowers (best known for Irma Vep, Kimi, No Sudden Move, and Honey Boy), Josiah Cross (best known for A Thousand and One, King Richard, and Masters of the Air), Mike Epps (best known for The Upshaws and Survivor’s Remorse), Noah Jupe (best known for horror film A Quiet Place and Honey Boy) and Pruitt Taylor Vince (best known for the hit Bird Box and Gotti).

Release Date

     Apple+

We can expect Lady in the Lake to hit our screens on Apple TV+ soon, although there’s no official release date as of yet. This might be due to some unexpected bumps in the road during the filming process.

While the show has been filming in Baltimore, production has been on hold for some time after Baltimore residents allegedly threatened extortion on the producers. A Baltimore police spokesman reported to The Baltimore Banner that several locals approached the filming crew after a day of filming and threatened to shoot someone unless they were to stop filming. However, they supposedly claimed that as long as they were paid, nothing would happen, attempting to extort $50,000 from the production. Due to this, filming has been on hold until a new location is found.