Ben Stiller has been relatively quiet over the recent years. Sure, he’s starred in a variety of films and TV shows, including “The Meyerowitz Stories,” “Brad’s Status,” and “Arrested Development,” but nothing has been a major film on the level of “Zoolander 2.” And apparently, there’s a good reason for that.
Now, as his latest project debuted over the weekend, the limited series “Escape at Dannemora,” Stiller explains how the box office failure of “Zoolander 2” opened him up for more interesting projects that he could spend his time developing. Specifically, the filmmaker talks about how he had all the time he needed to research the real-life events that inspired his directorial effort, ‘Dannemora,’ since his phone wasn’t ringing off the hook after “Zoolander 2.”
“‘Zoolander 2’ was not a big hit,” Stiller said on a recent The Watch podcast episode. “When the Inspector General report [about the David Sweat and Richard Matt escape] came out, I didn’t have a lot going on. I had the time to work on this with the guys and to go up there and start researching.”
He continues, “I think if I’d been bombarded with other opportunities at that time, I might have not stuck with it as long as it took to actually get it made. Because it wasn’t that easy to find a home for it. Ultimately, we had battles along the way in terms of actually getting it to the point where it got greenlit and made because of budget and other things.”
So, even though “Zoolander 2” was not a hit, as he says, the failure opened him up to tackle a project that not many people would associate with the comedic actor-director. “Escape at Dannemora” tells the story of David Sweat and Richard Matt, who both escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility, with the assistance of a female guard. The miniseries stars Patricia Arquette, Paul Dano, and Benicio Del Toro, and seems to be pretty great. But the series isn’t what you might expect from Stiller.
But hey, maybe that’s what makes Stiller such an enduring star. He’s able to see the silver lining in high-profile failures and turn it into artistic opportunity.
“Escape from Dannemora” airs every Sunday on Showtime. The first episode premiered this past weekend.