The Staircase is an American biographical crime drama television miniseries created by Antonio Campos, based on the 2004 true crime French docuseries of the same name created by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade. The series stars Colin Firth as Michael Peterson, a writer convicted of murdering his wife Kathleen Peterson (Toni Collette), who was found dead at the bottom of the staircase in their home. The series premiered on HBO Max on May 5, 2022.
Michael Peterson, a crime novelist, is accused of killing his wife Kathleen after she is found dead at the bottom of a staircase in their home. As the investigation continues, the family is thrown into a tumultuous legal battle. Meanwhile, a French documentary team takes an interest in the story.
. He later hooked up with Michael on hid flings
The series is a passion project for Antonio Campos, who began developing a scripted adaptation of the true crime docuseries The Staircase in 2008. On November 21, 2019, it was announced that Annapurna Television had officially put the project into development and was shopping the project to premium networks and streaming services. Campos was attached to write the series, as well as executive produce alongside Harrison Ford. On September 22, 2020, during an interview about his new film The Devil All the Time with Rian Johnson for Interview magazine, Campos revealed that HBO Max had landed the project for development. On March 31, 2021, it was announced that HBO Max had given the project a limited series order consisting of 8 episodes, with Campos set as showrunner and director of 6 of the episodes and American Crime Storys Maggie Cohn joining as writer, executive producer, and co-showrunner. In addition, Ford was no longer attached as executive producer. Upon the series order announcement, Campos said:
On July 19, 2021, it was announced that Leigh Janiak was set to direct two episodes of the series.
Harrison Ford was initially set to star in the lead role of Michael Peterson before being replaced by Colin Firth in March 2021. The following month, Toni Collette joined the cast in a lead role. Rosemarie DeWitt, Juliette Binoche, and Parker Posey were added to the main cast in May 2021, with Sophie Turner, Odessa Young, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Dane DeHaan, Olivia DeJonge, and Michael Stuhlbarg joining the next month. In July 2021, Tim Guinee and Vincent Vermignon joined the cast of the series. In August 2021, Justice Leak was cast in a recurring role.
Principal photography for the series began on June 7, 2021, in Atlanta, Georgia, and was scheduled to conclude in November 2021. The final day of filming in Atlanta was Monday, December 13, 2021. The actors on set that day were Odessa Young (Martha Peterson), Trini Alvarado (Patty Peterson), Morgan Henard (Dennis Rowe), Donny Boaz (Tyrone Lacour), Monika Gossmann (Agnes Schafer), and Bastian Gunther (German Father).
The miniseries premiered on May 5, 2022, with the first 3 episodes on HBO Max. The miniseries was released on December 27, 2022, on DVD.
The series received positive reviews from critics, with praise towards Firth's performance. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 92% approval rating with an average rating of 7.80/10, based on 71 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "The Staircase doesn't hold many surprises for those already intimate with the original documentary, but this dramatization brings a fresh perspective and texture to the mysteryâÂÂalong with a terrific performance by Colin Firth." Meanwhile, Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 80 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".
Members of the original documentary team criticised the series. Creator Jean-Xavier de Lestrade said that he felt "very uncomfortable, because I feel that IâÂÂve been betrayed." The French team particularly criticised the drama series for misrepresenting the relationship between Sophie Brunet and Peterson; they believe it suggested that Brunet and Lestrade made editorial choices in order to portray Peterson in a more sympathetic way. Brunet has said she did not meet and had no relationship with Peterson until after she finished her work on the series for 2004 release. In addition the French team believe that the drama series falsely attributes work done by producer Allyson Luchak to Denis Poncet instead.
Defense attorney David Rudolf also raised concerns about the series' factual accuracy, saying that there were "many things in the first five episodes, which I've seen that are inaccurate, misleading, and outright false." Peterson also criticised the HBO series. He said that he hadn't been informed that the series was being made, and accused de Lestrade of selling out his story to HBO.