The HISTORY® channel announced the greenlight of the new nonfiction series Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman (working title) hosted and executive produced by the Academy Award-winning actor as part of A+E Networks MIPCOM upfront presentation. Produced by Freeman and producer Lori McCreary’s production company, Revelations Entertainment, the six one-hour episode series will reveal in detail history’s greatest convict escapes from some of the most notorious prisons in the world.

“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, Riker’s 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 Morgan Freeman.

“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.” 

Famous jailbreaks are the stuff of legend as their true stories are often untold. Now, with dramatic recreations, dynamic storytelling, and cutting-edge visual effects escapes from prisons like Alcatraz and Sing Sing will come to life in graphic detail. Hosted by Freeman, each episode will unearth every step of an inmate’s meticulous plan, the escape route, and the intense manhunt that immediately followed.

“Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman” (w.t.) is produced for the HISTORY channel by Revelations Entertainment. Lori McCreary, James Younger, and Kelly Mendelsohn are executive producers for Revelations Entertainment. Mary E. Donahue and Max Micallef are executive producers for the HISTORY channel.

A+E Networks launches its MIPCOM Upfront today with a global catalog that will effectively meet the needs of its international partners, boasting more than 800 fresh hours of ratings-proven mega-franchises, award-winning premium docuseries and biographies, and a powerful collection of first-run TV movies that reflect its status as the number-one producer of original TV movies in the world.

The A+E Networks MIPCOM Upfront presentation will boast projects from A-list HISTORY channel talent including Laurence Fishburne, host of the new programming franchise History’s Greatest Mysteries, Tim Allen, from the recently announced series Assembly Required, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Black Patriots), and William Shatner (The UnXplained); 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, executive producer of Lifetime’s Wendy Williams: The Hot Topic biopic and its accompanying feature-length documentary on Williams, and Sharon Osbourne, executive producer of The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne; part A&E Network’s genre-defining, Emmy Award-winning Biography banner.