Benicio Del Toro and Patricia Arquette set to star in prison escape drama for Showtime directed by Ben Stiller

Image from AV Club

By Darian Scalamoni

            Ben Stiller has had quite an intriguing start to his directorial career which began in 1994 with the romantic dramedy, Reality Bites. He’s had some great works like Zoolander, Tropic Thunder and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty though he’s also struck out big time with just one feature, Zoolander 2; it seems he’s going to try his talents on premium television now and he has his first two stars attached. According to The Tracking Board, Benicio Del Toro and Patricia Arquette will star in the prison escape drama miniseries, Escape at Clinton Correctional for Showtime.

            The series follow Richard Matt and David Sweat as they went missing in an early morning bed check at the maximum security prison and in somewhat of A Shawshank Redemption plot, the men used tools to dig a tunnel beyond the prison walls. Here’s the catch with this true story from 2015, they planned to meet Joyce Mitchell beyond the walls as Mitchell had wanted Matt to kill her husband but she never showed up. The manhunt that followed lasted for three weeks and led to the death of one man and the other was captured after an investigation that cost $23 million.

            Arquette is set to play Mitchell while Del Toro will play Matt if everyone’s schedules work out. I think these are tremendous roles for both Del Toro and Arquette as well as a great directorial challenge for Stiller. Michael Tolkin and Brett Johnson will write the show. They have great success on Showtime as they’re the head writers for the drama series, Ray Donovan that is housed on the same network.

            Del Toro will be seen next in Star Wars: The Last Jedi before reprising roles as The Collector in Avengers: Infinity War and Alejandro in Soldado, the sequel to Sicario. Arquette won her first Academy Award just a few years ago for Boyhood and can be seen next in Kirsten Dunst’s directorial debut, The Bell Jar alongside Dakota Fanning and Jesse Plemons.