Showtime's "Escape at Dannemora" (Benicio Del Toro/Patricia Arquette)

[Hoke Moseley]

Showtime is lining up a trio of big stars for a true-crime drama.

The network is teaming with Ben Stiller for Escape at Clinton Correctional, a limited series based on the 2015 prison escape in upstate New York. Sources say Stiller is attached to direct all eight episodes of the project, in which Oscar winners Benicio Del Toro and Patricia Arquette are currently in negotiations to star.

The series will tell the real-life story of Richard Matt and David Sweat, two inmates who were discovered missing at the maximum security Clinton Correction Facility in New York after being aided in their escape by a married female prison employee with whom they both became sexually entangled.

Del Toro will play Matt, while Arquette will portray Tilly Mitchell, who supervises the prison tailor shop. Sweat's casting is expected to be announced shortly.

Escape at Clinton Correctional will be written and executive produced by Mad Men's Brett Johnson and Michael Tolkin (The Player), who met while working as writers on Showtime's Ray Donovan. Johnson and Tolkin will also executive produce alongside Bryan Zuriff (Steve Jobs), Michael De Luca (Fifty Shades of Grey) via Michael De Luca Productions and Nicky Weinstock for Stiller's Red Hour Productions.

Source