The Staircase

The story of wealthy North Carolina business executive Kathleen Peterson (played by Toni Colette), her untimely death at the bottom of a flight of stairs, and ...

The humans who are lost in these stories and the ones that are left behind to pick up the pieces. There's blood all over the walls, the floors, and the body. Later, the camera pans back over to the bottom of the stairs and we see the crime scene in all its gritty, bloody, haunting glory.

Sky's The Staircase delivers a confronting – yet fascinating – performance from Colin Firth and it's precisely why we can't stop watching, says one Stylist ...

Add to that a new strategy of having the whole case filmed by French documentarians and we start to get insight into how the whole case is a lot more convoluted than we originally thought. Perhaps one of the most chilling scenes, though, comes when Kathleen’s death unfolds in the way Michael’s lawyers think at the end of episode 2 ‘Chiroptera’. There’s no real introduction to the scene and you’re left thinking it could very well be real. It’s a perplexing story – especially since Michael retains his innocence to this day – but is one that starts to unfold into a tale of family secrets, suspicion and whodunnits. Colin Firth plays Michael not only brilliantly, but in the charismatic – yet suitably socially awkward – way that Michael was in the documentary. In Michael’s eyes, it was a tragic accident likely induced by too much alcohol but the 35 cuts, bruises and lacerations point to anything but. In the world of true crime, there are a few standout cases that remain with us long after diving into them.

American novelist has always maintained his innocence after his wife Kathleen was found dead at the bottom of the stairs in 2001.

Todd and Clayton are both thought to have good relationships with their father. In a 2017 interview with IndyWeek, Atwater – who now uses her husband Christopher’s surname, Clark – revealed how she tries to keep her mother’s spirit alive. Since his release from prison, Michael, now 78, has written two books about the trial, his experiences behind bars and his life as a free man. In 2008, Michael’s stepdaughter Atwater obtained a $25m settlement after she filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the writer. The first documentary was released in 2004, with new episodes being added to cover more recent developments in 2013 and 2018. The charge was reduced after it emerged that Duane Deaver, a State Bureau of Investigation analyst, had misled jurors about the strength of bloodstain evidence in the original 2003 trial.

Colin Firth and Toni Collette star in HBO Max's "The Staircase," an uneven retelling of the famous case that's more intimate yet more meta.

“The Staircase” does limit some of its own potential by orbiting the docuseries so closely. The twists in the making of the docuseries, it turns out, rival the bizarre swerves in the homicide case itself. Against that lackluster standard, HBO Max’s dramatization of “The Staircase” — based on the French docuseries of the same name, which first debuted stateside in 2005 and added updates in 2013 and 2018 — is at least notable for trying something new. The dozens of cuts and wounds discovered on Kathleen’s body — but especially the seven deep lacerations on her scalp — persuade her sisters (Rosemarie DeWitt and Maria Dizzia), as well as her sole biological daughter, Caitlin (Olivia DeJonge), that Michael is responsible for her death. In contrast to most of its peers, the well-acted yet droopily paced eight-part miniseries challenges its audience to think more critically about its nonfiction predecessor, the storytelling choices it made and why. Just since February, we’ve gotten the scammer tales “ Inventing Anna” and “ The Dropout,” the murder mysteries “The Thing About Pam” and “ Under the Banner of Heaven,” and revisits of life-altering legal woes like “ Pam & Tommy,” “Joe vs.

Lawyer fact checks HBO Max show The Staircase, a true crime drama about Michael Peterson's North Carolina murder trial starring Colin Firth.

Then in Episode 3, as the D.A.’s team discusses Michael’s sexuality, Freda Black holds up a photo of Michael and Kathleen and suggests it could help their case if she gets up in court and says, “Do you really think that Kathleen Peterson ... knew her husband was talking about (expletive) this and (expletive) that. They were searching for the murder weapon for months and months and months.” As for the Hardin-de Lestrade interaction, he says: “The blow poke, that was never disclosed to Jean as a murder weapon. “The feds in Germany frown on that type of business.” Kathleen walks in on Michael, he mouths that “It’s Patty,” and then quietly gives a thumbs-up after Michael says he “can’t ask Kathleen for more help.” In a later scene, Kathleen expresses annoyance at both Michael and his sons during a discussion with Michael about the boys’ financial problems, though it ends when he seduces her. My wife and I are just not on the same page.” Later, in trying to convince Margaret to let Pfeiffer interview her and Martha about their adoptive father, Rudolf says “The reporter, Sonya Pfeiffer, is a friend. In Episodes 2 and 3: In Episode 2, during a meeting with Rudolf, Maher and Michael, in which they’re backgrounding Michael and Kathleen’s relationship, Guerette says, “I haven’t been able to find anyone that’s willing to say one bad thing about you two. Prodded by Poncet, de Lestrade tells Michael to repeat what he said, but “with more emotion.” Michael barks a refusal, saying he’s “not going to prostrate myself for the sake of your film.” In Episode 3: Out of the blue, Freda Black gets a tip that Michael was associated with another woman who was found dead at the bottom of a staircase — 20 years earlier, when he and his first wife, Patty Peterson, were living in Germany. The dead woman was a neighbor. I went to Germany. I spoke with the prosecutor in Germany. I visited the house. Rudolf reacts: “I think they got a lot right about the tunnel vision that the police and the prosecutors had based on blood at the scene and nothing else. Rudolf reacts: “People are gonna be like, ‘Huh??’ ... Maybe the reason they did that is to make people realize this is not a documentary. Rudolf reacts: “I was not in the grand jury, because defense lawyers are not allowed in a grand jury room. In Episode 1: Michael, his brother Bill Peterson (Tim Guinee), and his sons Todd (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Clayton (Dane DeHaan) are discussing possible defense lawyers when Bill says, “What about ... the one you considered before Clayton went away for spring break?” He’s referring to David Rudolf, and Michael is initially dismissive: “He’s the kind of guy you get when you’re guilty.” Bill replies, “Well, he’s smart.

Colin Firth plays Michael Peterson in the HBO Max series The Staircase, which is based on the documentary about the 2001 death of Peterson's wife, Kathleen.

Firth sheds his English accent and takes on the boisterous voice of Kathleen's widower, Michael, while Collette goes to unimaginable lengths to depict the dramatic moment Kathleen took her last breath. The stars are joined in their endeavors by an ensemble cast, who together illustrate the nuance and complexity of the case, which continues to fascinate people to this day. Inspired by the captivating documentary of the same title, the HBO Max series stars Colin Firth as novelist Michael Peterson and Toni Collette as his second wife, Kathleen. In December 2001, Kathleen was found dead at the bottom of a staircase inside the family's home in Durham, North Carolina.

In 2003, novelist Michael Peterson was convicted of killing his wife Kathleen after a highly-publicized trial. Colin Firth stars on the new show as Peterson ...

Investigators soon identified the former novelist as a person of interest, and Michael later turned himself in after being indicted for Kathleen's murder. This later became the real-life docuseries "The Staircase," which is currently available to watch on Netflix. Authorities were called to the Peterson home after a frantic 911 call by Michael — upon arriving, they found Kathleen unresponsive at the bottom of a staircase in the home, covered in blood.

Colin Firth and Toni Collette lead the cast of HBO Max and Sky/NOW's The Staircase, which adapts the Netflix documentary into a thrilling eight-part drama.

What else has Tim Guinee been in? What else has Juliette Binoche been in? What else has Cullen Moss been in? What else has Parker Posey been in? What else has Rosemarie DeWitt been in? What else has Olivia DeJonge been in? What else has Odessa Young been in? What else has Sophie Turner been in? What else has Dane DeHaan been in? What else has Patrick Schwarzenegger been in? What else has Toni Collette been in? What else has Michael Stuhlbarg been in?

A new true-crime series explores an unexplained 2001 death – but how does it compare to the gripping 2004 documentary of the same crime, asks Caryn James.

There is even a third audience of people fascinated enough by the case to go down a rabbit hole of research. He planned to use the Peterson case to examine the justice system from both the prosecution's and the defence's points of view. The fictional version, for example, depicts Jean-Xavier (Vincent Vermignon) and his producer in Paris searching for the subject of their next film. We come to see that he is a proven liar, who falsely claimed during a campaign for public office that he had won a Purple Heart for serving in Vietnam. Lying, of course, doesn't make him a killer. Sophie Turner is a strong presence as Margaret, the older of the two daughters Peterson adopted after their mother died (that's a whole other subplot and piece of evidence). Tim Guinee plays Peterson's loyal brother, Bill, thoroughly convincing us they could be siblings. It starts in 2017 when Peterson is about to go to court to finalise his plea, and quickly goes back to December 2001 when he makes a frantic emergency call, saying that his wife is unconscious. In one of the best fictional scenes, Kathleen angrily calls him "the great dissembler", capable of deflecting and talking his way out of almost anything. Throughout, the show flashes back to Kathleen and their family life, and forward to his legal battle. In 2013 and 2017, De Lestrade made two sequels, chronicling Peterson's release after eight years in prison and the plea deal that set him free for good. The defence said they had a lovely marriage and she died in a fall down a sharply-angled staircase. A reasonable conclusion, after watching the documentary, is that there are holes in both arguments. A scattershot structure and a couple of underwritten major characters, including Kathleen (Toni Collette) and Peterson's attorney, David Rudolf (Michael Stuhlbarg), make the show less taut and suspenseful than a crime story should be.

Colin Firth, left, and Vincent Vermignon in “The Staircase.” (HBO Max). By Robert LloydTelevision Critic.

(The original French title of “The Staircase” is “Soupçons” — “Suspicions.”) “Twelve jurors declare one of the stories the winner, and that story becomes justice,” says Juliette Binoche, playing a character the network has officially declared a spoiler, contemplating the question “What is justice?” That this is very much the point is established from the series’ biblical epigram (from Pontius Pilate, of all people), “What is truth?,” before you can even ask. (It does feel a little wayward at times, contributing to the occasional sense that the series might never end.) As with Michael’s doubleness, some care is taken to let us see her as conceivably the victim of a murder or an accident, as perfectly happy and less than perfectly happy, a true-crime Schrödinger’s cat. Because the Durham police and district attorney, initially cooperative, stopped participating in the documentary, giving the defense the lion’s share of screen time, De Lestrade’s series can feel a little partisan, if also less than decisive; for similar reasons, and some additional ones, Campos’ dramatic version is also not perfectly balanced, though he’s clearly tried to make it so. The exposition is nicely integrated into the action, which is a benefit of length — more room to buffer the facts with conversation. Despite the added tension, the series is made with a dedication to keeping things from getting too sensational, too declamatory, too actorish. For the armchair judge, it is not so much a matter of who you believe — there being improbabilities and weirdnesses in both the prosecution and defense — as who you don’t. And though you may form an opinion, you can never really know; indeed, it may be this very inconclusiveness that has kept the case alive in the public imagination. Unlike some other players here, Firth is not especially reminiscent of his real-world model; but he ekes a person out of the material, and he does keep you guessing. But if you’re interested in the facts behind the fact-based fiction, there is little new to learn. There is the promise of going behind closed doors, into the unrevealed personal lives of Michael and Kathleen and their blended family of adult children — an empty promise, given that those bits are necessarily invented, but the promise that powers all docudramas. A French television crew, under the direction of Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, arrived soon after Peterson was accused of murder and produced an eight-episode docuseries detailing the trial from preparation to verdict — “ The Staircase,” a Peabody Award-winning early model for the twist-and-turn true-crime documentaries and podcasts that have come to clutter the cultural landscape; subsequent episodes were added, updating the story with new developments through 2017.

Here's everything you need to know about the true story behind HBO Max's The Staircase, which details the tragic death of Kathleen Peterson.

He was released from custody with credit for the seven-plus years he'd already spent behind bars. Days after Kathleen's death on Dec. 9, 2001, Michael was charged with murder. Michael and Kathleen met in 1986. Following the deaths of both George and Elizabeth, Michael became the guardian of their two children. Though authorities initially considered the death accidental, the autopsy report later led investigators to believe that Kathleen died not after a fall but after being attacked. The night before, the two had been celebrating with drinks by the pool after learning that Michael's latest book, a WW II-era tale based on a true story, was being optioned by a Hollywood studio.

HBO Max's The Staircase limited series retells Kathleen Peterson's murder and stars Toni Collette, Colin Firth, Sophie Turner, and more.

For her part, Posey — who plays prosecutor Freda Black — is acting in the style of a Ryan Murphy true-crime drama, doing her version of Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark with a Southern accent and a prurient, homophobic fixation on Michael Peterson’s bisexuality. The Staircase does do a good job of establishing the series’ banal, moneyed late-’90s/early-’00s suburban milieu, although it’s less meticulous when it comes to establishing how Peterson’s wealth and status factored in to his prosecution for murder. The fictionalized Staircase is more about the meta-narrative surrounding the case than the case itself (or, by extension, the people involved). Campos’ version of the story has secured a fantastic, high-profile cast that also features Colin Firth as Michael Peterson, as well as Juliette Binoche, Michael Stuhlbarg, Rosemarie DeWitt, Sophie Turner, and Parker Posey in supporting roles. Given that the documentary version of The Staircase grapples with questions of prejudice and the impossibility of objective truth, this approach is both wholly appropriate and rather clever. Campos pulls off a skillful meta-trick weaving these into his narrative, filming the first few episodes with a bias toward Michael Peterson’s side of the story, then showing why the makers of the documentary might themselves have been biased. The same can’t really be said for the five episodes of The Staircase made available for review: Sure, you’ve got Toni Collette as Kathleen, building on her fearless reputation with dinner-table scenes that can’t help but evoke her famous “I am your mother!” monologue from Hereditary. But in terms of illuminating what made either Peterson tick, Campos’ version of The Staircase is no more forthcoming than Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s original.

There are many levels to "The Staircase," a drama as much about the making of the docuseries chronicling Michael Peterson's murder trial as the salacious ...

There's also the issue of how prosecutors leveraged that information, recognizing how it might play to a jury in 2003. (Netflix, notably, revisited the original 2004 series in 2018 The result is a production that constantly seems to be reassessing what we know, versus what we might think or assume, about what transpired.

Antonio Campos and Maggie Cohn spoke with Variety about adapting the seminal true crime series for HBO Max.

So that was always fun and was always in the forefront of the situations that we decided to put her in. So talking to people that worked with her, neighbors, friends, we started to construct a version of Kathleen. At the end of the day, this is a dramatized version of Kathleen based on a lot of things that we knew happened to Kathleen Peterson, that we knew Kathleen Peterson did and the kind of person she was. Ultimately, what we wanted to show is that people are capable of all sorts of things and to see something in themselves in him, as well. We knew how he spoke about it, and the ease with which he spoke about it, which was also a big part of what was fascinating in the documentary. CAMPOS: We anticipated that there are going to be people that jump on us about certain things, or want to put up a magnifying glass on certain parts of the story, and that’s fine. The discourse wasn’t happening, and that was part of the tension in the family. The world that the story starts off with in 2001 is very different from the world that Michael Peterson is in in 2017. No matter what the jury said afterwards, which is that they didn’t take that into consideration, we all know that they heard it and that it affected their perspective of Michael Peterson and that the D.A. knew that that would be the case. I want to get into something that really blew me away in the series, which was the aspect of queerness that comes through Michael Peterson, but also in so many other characters. They were there, they were part of the fabric of the story. That just feels like the best way to try and represent what is a very complicated series of events. The series pioneered a new, episodic style of gripping documentary storytelling, and in real-time revealed the details of Kathleen’s death, Michael’s trial and its aftermath, becoming an object of cult fascination that persists to this day.

How did The Staircase filmmakers' relationship with Michael affect the original 2004 docuseries? HBO Max's adaptation attempts to find out with a meta story ...

“The problem with any subject, as Maggie said, is that once you put on the camera, are you getting the real person?” adds Campos. “Are you getting someone performing? Playing devil’s advocate, Campos counters, “And I would argue that a good documentarian has to get close to a subject, to a certain degree, to get them to open up. Asked whether Campos had conversations about filmmaker-subject distance with de Lestrade, Campos says, “I think that Jean would argue that he was able to maintain his distance enough to know when Michael was putting on a show for the camera and when he felt like he was being more genuine. I got a very small taste of what that’s like to try to keep up that boundary…it’s very difficult, or it was for me.” I mean, I was in a three-hour conversation and I was struggling with it,” says Cohn. “So imagine, over the course of two years, trying to keep that separation and that distance when you’re so intimately connected. The fireplace tool, which mysteriously reappeared after an extensive search, was central to an episode in the original series titled “The Blowpoke Returns.” But Campos said that seeing the uncut footage from that plot twist gave him additional insight into Michael, who is played on the new miniseries by Colin Firth.

The HBO Max show, based on the documentary series of the same name, stars Colin Firth as Michael Peterson and Toni Collette as his wife Kathleen.

“Over the years, the story just continued to get more and more interesting and complicated,” Campos said of the Peterson murder case. At some point in 2009, while Michael was imprisoned, a new theory of Kathleen's death emerged: she was attacked by an owl from outside that caused her to fall down the stairs and lose consciousness after hitting her head. “This particular retelling of it just balances out the relationship between Kathleen and Michael and gives a voice to someone who really isn’t present in the documentary.” And in 2003, Michael was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. “I hope that viewers actually get a real insight into this intriguing family,” said Turner, who portrays Margaret Ratliff, one of Michael’s adopted daughters. The true crime story was turned into a 2004 popular docuseries, "The Staircase."

The notorious documentary series about the death of an author's wife gets a star-packed fictionalisation that is practically fizzing with tension.

The former is slippery and arrogant, putting in a performance that teeters on so many brinks – deeply loving yet coercive with family, paralysed with grief yet sociopathically detached, self-indulgent yet narcissistic – that you cannot help watching to see if and which way he will fall. As evidence against Michael grows – if not probative of murder, then at least of the fact that he is not quite the man they thought he was – the family begins to fracture. It skates close to becoming disorientating – particularly when Lestrade (Vincent Vermignon) and his documentary team turn up to make their film – but the timeline-hopping generally adds to the growing tension. The subsequent investigation revealed a millefeuille of layers to the man, the family and the story. Then we move back again to a few months before, when Michael, Kathleen (Toni Collette) and their children/wards (one from Kathleen’s previous relationship, four from Michael’s) have gathered for a family dinner and college send-off for one of them. He claimed he found her at the foot of the stairs she had fallen down while drunk and cradled her as he called the emergency services and she breathed her last.