Paramount Home Media To Release Escape At Dannemora On DVD On Apr. 16

On June 6, 2015, The Shawshank Redemption played out in the real world.   A tunnel had been dug … and dug … and dug for over 150 yards from inside the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York to the outside world.   

On the loose was convicted murderer Richard Matt, who had murdered his boss, dismembered the body and fled to Mexico, where he murdered another man.  After being sentenced to a lengthy prison stay by Mexican authorities, he was eventually extradited to the United States, convicted of murder and given a 25 year-to-life sentence to be served at the Clinton Correctional Facility.

Running with him was a fellow by the name of David Sweat, who was no Boy Scout either.  He was serving a life sentence for the murder of a sheriff’s deputy in Broome County, New York 13 years earlier.

Two convicted murderers, with life sentences, on the run.   Pretty scary stuff, but backtrack for a second … how on earth did they manage to dig a tunnel that long without some sort of help?    

If you didn’t follow the story back in 2015, that question will be answered for you in director Ben Stiller’s seven-part mini-series, Escape at Dannemora, which will be making its DVD debut on Apr. 16.

The answer to the question of how did Richard Matt (played in the mini-series by Benicio Del Toro) and David Sweat (Paul Dano — There Will be Blood, Little Miss Sunshine) escape from prison is … they had help.   

The first of these was Tilly Mitchell (an amazing performance by Patricia Arquette, who has already won the Golden Globe for her work here), a prison employee who was intimate with Richard Matt and worked out a scheme with him to have her husband murdered.   At the last minute she panic, failed to show-up to pick the two escapees up and ended up in the hospital with a panic attack.

But, as it turned out, she wasn’t the only one on the inside to aid Matt and Sweat. A prison guard by the name of Gene Palmer (David Morse) also helped out with the escape.  

The first four episodes of Escape at Dannemora deal with the inside the prison goings on, the plans, the “indiscretions,” while the final three installments in the mini-series detail the escape and subsequent manhunt.  

Of note, the Emmy nominations will take place at the end of the traditional broadcast season on July 16, with the awards handed out on Sept. 22 … expect to see a number of nods to Escape at Dannemora, with Patricia Arquette the clear frontrunner for her performance as the dimwitted Tilly Mitchell.

Bonus features include episode commentary by filmmaker Ben Stiller, who is joined by various members of the cast and crew and two production featurettes — “Primary Sources” and “The Making of Sweat’s Run.”