Mark Duplass and Mel Eslyn venture into the wilderness with the teenage runaway story “Penelope.”
The independently financed series, which premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, has found a home at Netflix. Eslyn, a production executive for the Duplass Brothers, is the showrunner of the series, which she co-wrote with Mark Duplass. Former Little Fires Everywhere actress Megan Stott is leading the show.
The official synopsis reads: “Feeling out of place in the modern world, 16-year-old Penelope (Stott) finds herself cosmically drawn to nature. Without a plan, she leaves her family and moves to the seductive wilderness of Washington State, where she begins to build a different life for herself. As Penelope builds an alternative life for herself, survival and growing up go hand in hand as she learns through trial and error.”
“Euphoria” actor Austin Abrams plays a supporting role in the pilot episode.
The series was produced independently by Duplass Brothers Productions and is executive produced by Jay Duplass and Shuli Harel. The Duplass Brothers previously created the adult animated series Animals, which premiered at Sundance in the early days of the festival in 2016 and was expanded to include episodes.
Eslyn, who made her directorial debut with “Biosphere,” serves as showrunner and director on “Penelope.” Eslyn is the longtime head of Duplass Brothers Productions and was part of a discussion with Chris O’Falt, IndieWire’s VP of game strategy, for a panel in collaboration with Adobe. The conversation focused on the partnership between Eslyn and Duplass behind projects like HBO’s “Room 104,” “Somebody Somewhere,” Hulu’s “Sasquatch” and, of course, the new release “Penelope,” which also debuted at the festival.
Duplass added in the series’ press notes that “Penelope” was inspired by his own daughters’ love of the series “Alone.” He and Eslyn explored the outdoors while camping and took survival courses to research the series. The eight-part series is also an ode to moving away from Generation Z’s dependence on technology.
Duplass previously said at Sundance 2021 that niche projects find the right home with different streamers. It should be noted that the Duplass Brothers had a four-film deal with Netflix at the time.
“I think distributors are realizing that it doesn’t really matter if a large group of people are watching what you’re doing. They have to be extremely passionate,” Duplass said. “So a tiny piece of the pie that really wants this stuff is enough – and that’s basically the only reason I’m still in business.”
“Penelope” premieres on Netflix in the US on September 24. Watch the trailer below.
