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Ladies Of The Lake

Ladies Of Lake 734x365
Credit: Brad Everett Young

Just The Facts:

What: LADIES OF THE LAKE, a four-episode, limited series based on the novel by DAYS Executive Producer Ken Corday, which follows the investigation into a series of murders among the rich and famous in the gated community of Avalon.

When: May 15

Where: Available for streaming on Amazon and Amazon Prime.

Follow on Twitter:  @LOTLSERIES1

Who’s Who

Crystal Amhurst (Jessica Morris, ex-Jennifer, ONE LIFE TO LIVE): Crystal is the quintessential trophy wife. Her one goal is to have a baby with husband Jonathan, but her problems getting pregnant have put her marriage on the rocks.

Jonathan Amhurst (John-Paul Lavoisier, ex-Philip, DAYS): A physically and verbally abusive sex addict who wants to have the perfect wife on his terms.

Clara (Arianne Zucker, Nicole, DAYS): A mysterious woman from Hudson Montgomery’s past who will stop at nothing to prove that Hudson’s death was more than a mere accident.

Brad Everett Young

Shawn Daniels (Kyle Lowder, ex-Brady, DAYS): Shawn is a by-the-book detective who is hell-bent on discovering the truth behind the murders at Avalon.

Brad Everett Young

Morgan Firestone (Marie Wilson, ex-Summer, DAYS et al): Morgan is a former pageant queen with ice water running through her veins. Morgan’s husband, Sheraton, spends more time with his collectible cars and
shipping empire than he does with her.

Sheraton Firestone (Gordon Thomson, ex-Adam, DYNASTY): Sheraton is a shipping magnate with a wandering eye. His wife has become little more than a collectible among his many possessions.

Alphonse Louis (Ian Buchanan, ex-Duke, GH et al): Vain and desperate to get his floundering movie career back on track, Alphonse is willing to do anything to get the next big part, even at the expense of his wife.

Angelica Louis (Lilly Melgar, ex-Lily, GH): Angelica is a classic Hollywood wife, married to a B-movie star. In order to cloak her violent and troubled past, she has immersed herself in a world of beauty, clothing and all things superficial.

Cassidy Montgomery (Jillian Clare, ex-Abigail, DAYS): Hudson’s daughter and Vivian’s stepdaughter. The queen bee of the children of Avalon, Cassidy has been roped in by Clara to help produce evidence against the ladies of the lake in the mysterious deaths that have been happening within the gated community.

Hudson Montgomery (Wally Kurth, Justin, DAYS/Ned, GH): Owner of a multi-million dollar technology corporation, Hudson is attempting to leave Vivian when things go horribly wrong.

Vivian Montgomery (Martha Madison, ex-Belle, DAYS): Vivian was a brilliant corporate executive who put her career out to pasture to support her tech giant husband, Hudson.

Dorothy Nolan (Patrika Darbo, Shirley, B&B): Dorothy is the black sheep of Avalon. Her sordid background and lack of wealth force the women of Avalon to keep her at arm’s length even though there are no secrets she isn’t privy to.

Tommy Nolan (John Callahan , ex-Edmund, ALL MY CHILDREN et al): Tommy is a disgraced former golf pro that now serves as the Avalon golf club mascot and close friend of the husbands.

A View From The Top

Executive Producer/Writer Michael Caruso and Executive Producer Kyle Lowder

Soap Opera Digest: How did the series come about?

Kyle Lowder: I was working on a musical project with Ken [Corday] in the summer of 2016, and I showed up to rehearsal one day, and he handed me this novel that he had just written, Ladies of the Lake. Out of respect and anticipation, I took it home and I read it. It took me a day-and-a-half, and I immediately realized as I was reading it that I wasn’t reading it like a book, per se. I could see it on the screen in my mind. I really couldn’t put it down. It’s a very entertaining, fun, full of soapy drama poolside read. So, I finished it, and long story short, I said to him, “Have you ever thought about developing this for the screen?” He said, “No, I hadn’t actually. Put together some kind of pitch package of what you would like to do, and then we’ll talk.” So one of the first things that I thought of was to give my college friend, Michael Caruso, a call. With his success with DEVANITY and with WINTERTHORNE and his Emmy nominations, I felt it was up his alley. Michael and I got together for dinner and talked about how we would want to do it and what we would want to do. We then had a meeting with Ken and talked to him about it with enthusiasm and Ken said, “This all sounds great,” and gave us the green light.

Michael Caruso: Ken was so supportive and so excited about this, but he basically said to us, “I need to focus on DAYS, so I’m letting you guys take the reins.” He really trusted us, and he really just let us do our thing creatively, which was extraordinary.

Lowder: That meant a lot to us.

Digest: What were your next steps?

Caruso: I read the novel and my copy of the novel is filled with Post-it notes and side-notes and all this stuff like that. Kyle and I decided that a short-term series would be the best for this book, so we wanted to tighten the landscape. There are a lot of characters in the book, and I really wanted it to be about the women. So I went off and I wrote it for two weeks, and then Kyle came over to the house and he’s like, “Okay, we’ve got to read this out loud,” which I hate doing, but we basically picked a bunch of characters and we read the whole thing out loud and we brought the script to Ken before we started filming anything. I was sweating bullets and terrified of what he was going to think, and he loved it. I was so grateful for that. He said, “All right, go make it!” It was that simple, and I’m literally sitting at the conference room table looking at him like, “That’s it? Nothing else?” He’s like, “No, I love it! Go do it!” I’m like, “Oh, my God! Okay, great!”

Digest: What was the actual production like?

Caruso: We wanted to do something very colorful and very splashy. It’s kind of like THE REAL HOUSEWIVES on steroids, if that’s possible, because we’re creating this imaginary world where these women look perfect 24 hours a day, and they’re always on edge 24 hours a day. Kyle and I agreed very early on that we wanted to take everything that we loved about daytime and really heighten it. This is very much a valentine to the world of daytime. All of our talent was just so excited, and they were so passionate about doing it and I think that shows in the final product. It was probably one of the most fun sets I’ve ever personally worked on.

Digest: How long did the filming take?

Caruso: We shot 15 days over two-and-a-half weeks.

Digest: Were you happy with the final product?

Caruso: Thrilled.

Lowder: Very much so.

Caruso: It’s very, very fun. I’d like to believe that soap fans are going to get a kick out of this. It’s so cool because we have stars from all of the major soap operas. And it’s cool to see a lot of these actors and actresses taking on characters that I think the audience hasn’t really seen them play before.

Digest: Now, because it was a one-off, is there any opportunity to do a sequel or a part two?

Caruso: Kyle and I have outlined a potential sequel should there be a desire or demand for it. We are ready to go.  But that’s up to Ken. If Ken wants it, he gets it.

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