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Showtime's 'Escape at Dannemora' works to get NY details right

Locals will recognize faces, places in the Showtime limited series, much of which was filmed in Clinton County.

ALBANY – Early in premiere episode of Showtime's Escape at Dannemora, a radio anchor can be heard delivering a flawless pronunciation of Chateaugay, the small, hard-to-pronounce town in the North Country.

When a pair of prison workers meet for a pint after work, they enter Bobby's Lounge, a real-life, neighborhood joint in Plattsburgh.

And when Joyce "Tilly" Mitchell and her husband, Lyle, get into a fight, they're shown at the War of 1812 Museum, the small, admission-free exhibit space commemorating the Battle of Plattsburgh in 1814.

Escape at Dannemora, the Showtime limited series that debuts at 10 p.m. Sunday, is an in-depth look at the 2015 prison break at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.

The seven-part series is a dramatic retelling of the months leading up to the dramatic escape, which saw brutal murderers David Sweat and Richard Matt lead authorities on a three-week manhunt through the woods of the North Country after cutting through walls and steam pipes to break out of the maximum-security prison.

More: Review: Ben Stiller directs a masterpiece in NY prison-break drama 'Escape at Dannemora'

But while the series is a fictionalized account, the early episodes make clear it takes pains to get the little, New York-centric details correct, with large parts of the series filmed in Clinton County and even in the prison yard itself.

"The attitude in the town was … Ben Stiller is going to make a comedy, that was the assumption, maybe even Showtime had that assumption," Stiller, the comedic actor who directed the series, told USA TODAY.

"When I got to the place and started to experience these people, I just wanted to show the reality of what happened. (They said) 'We don’t want to be made fun of, it’s a few bad apples, we have a lot of pride in what we do.'"

Stiller showed the premiere episode Thursday night in Plattsburgh.

Lots of cameos

The series features cameos by some of those involved in the manhunt and its aftermath, including tactical team members and a nurse at Albany Medical Center, where Sweat was treated for injuries.

Much of the series was shot in the North Country, including several scenes in the prison yard and in Bobby's Lounge, a hotspot for corrections officers after their shifts.

The bar shut down a few days for filming, according to Courtney Williams, a bartender at Bobby's.

"We're excited to see it," Williams said. "Behind-the-scenes is obviously not the same thing as seeing it on the screen."

Retired Major Charles Guess, the Rush-Henrietta and SUNY Brockport graduate who was incident commander of the State Police's search, was a consultant for the series.

Guess was among those who played themselves; He has a minor cameo in the tail end of the series.

“Every time we would shoot a scene, we’d be asking the people who were involved what happened," Stiller told USA TODAY. "We were casting people from up there anyway to be extras, so I thought why not get some of them to play themselves?”

Cuomo depicted

Gov. Andrew Cuomo does not appear himself, but he is depicted in the final episode of the series, which shows him touring the prison in the immediate aftermath of the escape.

Cuomo is played by actor Michael Imperioli, a Brewster High School graduate who played Christopher in The Sopranos.

Imperioli and writer Brett Johnson met with Cuomo in his Manhattan office in December 2017, according to Cuomo's past schedules.

But while the Cuomo character is limited to a single episode in the series, the governor loomed large over the production: When prison officials declined to allow Stiller and the crew into the Clinton Correctional Facility to film, Cuomo ordered them to reverse course.

“It was hard to get permission; we tried for a long time, they weren’t really interested," Stiller said. "And then we had a meeting with the governor. He basically saved our production.”

Cuomo himself has defended his decision to push prison officials to allow the filming, which was limited to the recreation yard and the prison's exterior.

The tunnels and pipe system were replicated in an out-of-commission prison in Pittsburgh, where some of the escape scenes were filmed.

"From our point of view, doing a movie in the North Country is great," Cuomo said in August.

"It's economic activity. It brings people to the North Country. Everything I've heard is that from an economic point of view, purely selfishly, it was great for the economy."

Tax breaks coming

The series' producers felt Cuomo's presence in another key way: Tax breaks.

The Democratic governor is a key booster of the state's $420 million-a-year film-tax credit program, which provides major breaks to movie or TV projects that film in the state.

The series has applied for tax breaks under the program. The full value won't be known until all the production costs are tallied up.

Not everyone is pleased with the series and the attention it will bring Sweat, who was injured as he was being taken into custody after the manhunt but ultimately survived.

Sweat is serving a life sentence for the brutal 2002 murder of Broome County Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Tarsia in a town of Kirkwood park.

Sweat shot Tarsia and twice ran him over with his Honda Accord in the pre-dawn hours of July 4. Jeffrey Nabinger, Sweat's accomplice, then picked up Tarsia's Glock and shot Tarsia twice.

Broome County Sheriff David Harder said the television series will bring "too much glory" to Sweat.

"He shouldn't be recognized for anything," Harder said. "He was a coward who hid in the brush. When Deputy Tarsia came around in front of his car, (Sweat) just mowed him down, ran over him and they took his own weapon and shot him while he was still alive."

Sweat, Matt and Mitchell — the prison worker who aided the inmates' escape — are the three main characters in the series.

They're played by Paul Dano, Benicio del Toro and Patricia Arquette, respectively.

Stiller traveled to meet with Sweat at the Five Points Correctional Facility in Romulus, Seneca County. The actors met with him separately.

Sweat is now being held in Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, Erie County, after previous stays at Attica in Wyoming County and Five Points.

"It’s hard to talk to somebody when they’re in prison because sometimes there are people there who are sociopaths beyond recognition," Dano told USA TODAY.

"I found it very hard to be there."

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