HBO Max adapts Staircase as drama

The Staircase

WarnerMedia’s streamer HBO Max has ordered a drama adaptation of true crime docuseries The Staircase, with British actor Colin Firth starring in the lead role.

The docuseries of The Staircase came from French director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and documented the trial of American novelist Michael Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his wife.

It premiered as a miniseries on Canal+ in France in 2004 and was followed by a two-hour sequel in 2012-13. Three new episodes with further updates were later made for Netflix, which added all 13 episodes as one series on its platform in 2018.

The drama adaptation is coproduced by HBO Max and Annapurna Television, and written and exec produced by showrunners Antonio Campos and Maggie Cohn.

The Staircase will run as a limited series, with Campos directing six of the eight planned episodes.