13/08/2026
We’re thrilled to announce that Appian Way, the production company founded by Academy Award winner Leonardo DiCaprio, has joined FREEING FLIPPER as Executive Producer.
Directed by Barney Douglas (McEnroe, Warriors), the film tells the remarkable true story of Ric O'Barry - once the world’s highest-paid dolphin trainer and the man behind the dolphins of Flipper, whose extraordinary change of course would ultimately make him the central figure in Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove.
Now 86, Ric looks back on more than five decades of an extraordinary life shaped by dolphins, the triumphs, sacrifices, relationships and personal cost of a mission he could never walk away from.
Featuring Fisher Stevens, Maisie Williams, Stephen Stills and Lincoln O'Barry, alongside one of Dr. Jane Goodall’s final on-screen appearances, combines never-before-seen family archive with immersive dolphin-POV cinematography to tell a story of freedom, legacy, family and redemption.
Dogwoof launches international sales at TIFF: The Market this September.
Read the exclusive in Deadline Hollywood.
Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way is boarding the documentary 'Freeing Flipper,' the story of Ric O'Barry, the dolphin trainer turned activist.