Colin Firth has been snapped up to take the lead on the HBO series ‘The Staircase’ based on the true-crime docuseries.
The eight-episode series will follow novelist Michael Peterson (Firth), his North Carolina family and the suspicious death of his wife, Kathleen.
Harrison Ford was initially rumoured to have been attached to the role.
The documentary from director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade delved into the story of Michael Peterson, a crime novelist accused of killing his wife Kathleen after she is found dead at the bottom of a staircase in their home, and the 16-year judicial battle that followed. De Lestrade was granted unusual access to the case immediately following Kathleen’s death in 2001 in Durham, NC. Her husband, Michael, a local public figure and successful novelist, quickly became the prime suspect and was convicted. Lestrade returned to the case a few years later for a three-part follow-up to the case, which aired on Netflix.
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Antonio Campos (“The Devil All the Time”) and Maggie Cohn (“The Girl Before”) serve as writers and showrunners with Campos set to direct six of the eight episodes.
Campos said: “This has been a project I have been working on in one way or another since 2008. It’s been a long and winding road, but well worth the wait to be able to find partners like HBO Max, Annapurna, co-showrunner Maggie Cohn and the incredible Colin Firth to dramatize such a complex true-life story.”
