The classic true-crime docuseries The Staircase (which first appeared on Sundance TV, later to hit Netflix) obviously included the guilty verdict for Michael Peterson, as well as a lengthy prison sentence, regarding the death of his wife, Kathleen, in 2001. Yet the story was anything but airtight (did she truly die from falling down the stairs as he claimed?), and HBO Max is now picking up the saga (co-starring Colin Firth and Toni Collette as husband/wife, with a cast including Sophie Turner and Parker Posey) and likely going in an at-least slightly different direction. For one thing, the story will be dramatized, so that allows for certain liberties that could surface in the future.
HBO Max has released a few images, just to give a taste of the surface family dynamic.
What of the owl theory, though? I don’t want to spoil too much if you haven’t seen the original series, but let’s just say that there may have been a predatory intervening party involved, and it wouldn’t bode too well with the true-crime audience if this theory was ignored. Never fear, though, because as The Wrap notes, director/writer Antonio Campos declared that there will be “a deep dive” into the Owl Theory. He added, “We took it as seriously as any other theory.”
Bring it on. You can read more about the Owl Theory here, and for now, HBO Max keeps the logline simple:
Based on a true story, THE STAIRCASE explores the life of Michael Peterson, his sprawling North Carolina family, and the suspicious death of his wife, Kathleen Peterson.
The cast also includes Michael Stuhlbarg, Juliette Binoche, Dane DeHaan, Olivia DeJonge, Rosemarie DeWitt, Tim Guinee, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Vincent Vermignon, and Odessa Young. HBO Max’s The Staircase is geared toward a spring release.
(Via The Wrap)
