The History Channel has greenlit the new nonfiction series Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman (working title) which will look back at some of the biggest jailbreaks from some of the most notorious prisons in the world.
The six one-hour series will be hosted and executive produced by the Oscar-winning actor, and he’ll produce with Revelations Entertainment partner Lori McCreary.
Each episode will feature dramatic recreations and cutting-edge visual effects, unearthing every step of an inmate’s meticulous plan, their escape route, and the intense manhunt that followed.
The announcement was made as part of A+E Networks MIPCOM upfront presentation which launched today.
“I’ve been inside the minds of prisoners in my acting career, and I’m looking forward to stepping inside the most notorious prisons in the world, like Alcatraz, Sing Sing, Rikers Island and Leavenworth. Audiences will feel like they’re making the escapes themselves as I walk them into a virtual world and through the greatest escapes in history,” said Freeman who was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for the prison drama Shawshank Redemption, in which he played a wise, patient, and optimistic inmate.
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“The History channel is honored to partner with Morgan and his production team, Revelations Entertainment, to deliver context and backstory to some of history’s infamous prison escapes,” said Eli Lehrer, Executive Vice President and General Manager for the History channel. “Morgan’s gravitas will help ground this series and drive the drama in a way no other face or voice can.”
McCreary, James Younger and Kelly Mendelsohn are EPs for Revelations Entertainment. Mary E. Donahue and Max Micallef are EPs for the History channel.
The A+E Networks MIPCOM Upfront presentation, which touts a catalog of 800+ fresh hours, includes such new programs as History’s Greatest Mysteries hosted by Laurence Fishburne, Assembly Required with Tim Allen, as well as talent from sister networks A&E and Lifetime including Robin Givens, director of Lifetime’s Ann Rule movie adaptation A Murder to Remember, Wendy Williams, EP of Lifetime’s Wendy Williams: The Hot Topic biopic and its accompanying feature-length documentary on Williams, and Sharon Osbourne, EP of The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne, part A&E Network’s Emmy Award-winning Biography banner.
