Colin Firth playing Michael Peterson? HBO announces cast change for ‘Staircase’ drama.
A new project bringing the story of the Michael Peterson murder case to screen in dramatic form now has a new actor in the lead role.
Academy Award-winning British actor Colin Firth will now play Peterson in the limited series adaptation of “The Staircase,” a role originally said to be played by Harrison Ford.
The series will be based primarily on the Netflix documentary series “The Staircase,” but will draw on other books and reports.
“The Staircase” tells the story of Michael Peterson’s murder trial in the death of his wife, Kathleen, who was found in a pool of blood at the bottom of the back staircase in the couple’s Durham home in December 2001.
Peterson was found guilty in 2003 but granted a new trial after SBI misconduct was revealed. He took an Alford plea in 2017 and was released. He has been living in Durham since then, and in 2019 independently published two books, “Behind the Staircase,” and “Beyond the Staircase,” which chronicle his life since Kathleen’s death, including his time in prison.
The series is being written and produced by Antonio Campos and Maggie Cohn, and will premiere on HBO Max, a Warner Bros. streaming service. Campos will also direct six of the eight episodes.
When asked about the casting change, Peterson, from his home in Durham, told The News & Observer via email: “Was still holding out for Brad Pitt, but I am immensely flattered that Colin Firth is taking on the role of me. He is a better fit since Harrison Ford is older than I am and would be playing a man twenty years younger during the trial, while Colin is exactly the age I was when this tragedy began.”
Sarah Aubrey, head of original content at HBO Max, said in a press release: “It is a thrill to collaborate with Antonio Campos, Maggie Cohn and Annapurna Television for the exploration of this true-life story that’s rife with dramatic revelations. With the enormously talented Colin Firth at the center of this adaptation, the story of THE STAIRCASE will continue to captivate audiences with every bizarre twist and turn.”
No release date for the series was announced.
It’s not known if the series will be filmed in North Carolina, but if so, it wouldn’t be Firth’s first work here.
In 2011, Firth and Emily Blunt spent time in Raleigh and other parts of the state filming the movie “Arthur Newman,” which released in 2012. The movie is about a man who is unhappy with his life and despised by his family, so he fakes his death and assumes a new identity in a new town.
In 2009, Firth starred in the movie “Main Street,” which was both filmed and set in Durham. It co-starred Ellen Burstyn, Orlando Bloom and Patricia Clarkson. In “Main Street,” Firth played a stranger who came to town to rent old tobacco warehouses for a sketchy new business venture.
Firth won an Oscar in 2011 for his starring role in “The King’s Speech.” He is also well known for his roles in “Pride & Prejudice,” “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” “Love Actually” and “Mama Mia.”
Hollywood can’t get enough of this story
Will interest in this case ever die? A lot of locals sure hope so, but the rest of the world seems endlessly intrigued.
Here are just a few examples of projects that have focused on the Peterson case:
▪ The original eight-episode “Staircase” documentary series was released in England on BBC in January 2005 and aired exclusively in the U.S. on the Sundance Channel in April of that year. It won a Peabody Award and was released on DVD. In 2013, director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade released two more episodes of “The Staircase” updating developments in Peterson’s case. These episodes also aired on Sundance. Netflix obtained exclusive rights to “The Staircase” and released the first 10 episodes along with three new episodes in June 2018.
▪ True-crime writer Diane Fanning’s 2005 book on the case, “Written In Blood,” is subtitled “The True Story of Murder and a 16-Year-Old Secret That Tore a Family Apart.”
▪ A 2006 episode of the Headline News series “Forensic Files” focused on the Peterson case. The episode was called “A Novel Idea.”
▪ In 2007, a Lifetime movie called “The Staircase Murders” starred Treat Williams as Michael Peterson and Kevin Pollak as Peterson’s attorney, David Rudolf.
▪ Aphrodite Jones’ book on the case, “A Perfect Husband,” was released in 2013.
▪ The premiere episode (“Animal Instincts”) of the acclaimed Criminal podcast in 2014 was devoted to The Owl Theory and included an interview with Peterson’s neighbor, Larry Pollard. (An owl attack was one of the more unusual theories floated as a possibility for Kathleen Peterson’s death.)
▪ The French documentary “The Staircase” was the inspiration for the first season of the NBC sitcom “Trial & Error,” which aired in March 2017. In that show, a poetry professor (John Lithgow) goes on trial for the murder of his wife, who was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in front of a shattered window. In the final episode of the season (SPOILER ALERT), after the husband is convicted and sent to prison, cellphone video is discovered of the wife being attacked and killed by an owl.
▪ In April 2017, NBC’s “Dateline” tackled the Peterson case with an episode called “Down the Back Staircase.” Peterson was interviewed by Dennis Murphy.
▪ In June 2017, a BBC podcast called “Beyond Reasonable Doubt?” examined the case and scored a long interview with Michael Peterson. Reporter Chris Warburton also interviewed the Petersons’ former neighbor, Larry Pollard, who came up with the infamous “Owl Theory,” and Kathleen Peterson’s sister, Candace Hunt Zamperini.
▪ In December 2017, the popular podcast “My Favorite Murder” released a special 100th episode about the case. “The Staircase” documentary was one of the things hosts Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark bonded over the first time they met.
▪ The Investigation Discovery (ID) channel ran a three-part series on the Peterson case on April 8, 2018, called “American Murder Mystery: The Staircase.” The series included interviews with former Durham District Attorney Jim Hardin, with the former male escort Brent Wolgamott (aka Brad from Raleigh) who was called to testify at the trial, and with Kathleen Peterson’s sister Candace Hunt Zamperini, who initially defended Michael Peterson but later testified against him.
▪ In January 2019, Michael Peterson released an independently published memoir, “Behind the Staircase,” which chronicles his life since Kathleen’s death, including his time in prison. He followed that with another book, “Beyond the Staircase.”
▪ In April 2019, the “Dr. Phil” show aired an in-depth interview with Peterson that ran over two episodes.
▪ Peterson also appeared on an episode of the “Dr. Oz” TV show, along with his first wife, Patricia Peterson. That episode aired in October 2019.
This story was originally published March 31, 2021 at 3:17 PM with the headline "Colin Firth playing Michael Peterson? HBO announces cast change for ‘Staircase’ drama.."
