Stratton Leopold & Dax Phelan Embark on New Limited Series

Veteran producer Stratton Leopold ("Mission: Impossible III") and writer/producer/director Dax Phelan ("The Other Side of the Wind") have teamed up to produce an as-yet-untitled limited series based on one of the most daring prison escapes in history.

Set in Ireland, the United States, and Australia during the 1860s and 1870s, the epic true story is about the Irish Republican Brotherhood's attempt to organize the escape of six Fenians prisoners from a British penal colony in Western Australia aboard the whaleship, Catalpa.

Phelan will write the pilot and produce with Leopold and Eric M. Klein. Terence E. Groves ("Jasmine"), who first brought the idea to Leopold, will serve as executive producer along with James Su ("She's Lost Control") and Benjamin Cheek.

"As a filmmaker, I'm always on the lookout for true stories about the triumph of the human spirit over incredible odds," Leopold said. "The story of the Fenians' escape shows the power of human will to accomplish extraordinary things under the worst of circumstances."

"This is one of the greatest escape stories that I've ever heard and, ironically, one of the least known," Phelan said. "The more you learn about it and those involved, the better it gets."

Leopold recently produced "The Neon Highway," which will be released theatrically later this year. Phelan recently adapted Neil White's New York Times best-selling memoir, "In the Sanctuary of Outcasts," for Leopold and co-produced Orson Welles's final film, "The Other Side of the Wind," for Netflix.

Klein's recent credits include post management on "They Call Me Magic" (Apple+), "Heist" (Netflix), and the 2021 Oscar-winner "Two Distant Strangers" (Netflix) for the post outlet, ɡlo͞o.

Phelan is represented by Daniel S. Passman at Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown, & Passman and Lon Haber & Co.

Photo by Guy Livneh