Dane DeHaan (Chronicle, ZeroZeroZero, A Cure for Wellness) has joined HBO Max’s true-crime limited series The Staircase, exploring the life of Michael Peterson. The actor will play Clayton Peterson, Michael Peterson’s son (via Deadline).
DeHaan is currently portraying antagonist Jim Dooley in Apple TV+’s Stephen King miniseries adaptation Lisey’s Story. New episodes stream every Friday.
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DeHaan joins Colin Firth, Toni Collette, Juliette Binoche, Rosemarie DeWitt, Sophie Turner, Odessa Young, and Parker Posey in the scripted eight-part drama focused on the infamous murder case.
Based on Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s true-crime docuseries and various books and reports on the case, the limited series explores the life of Michael Peterson (Firth), his sprawling North Carolina family, and the suspicious death of his wife, Kathleen Peterson (Collette). In 2001, Peterson was arrested for the murder of his second wife after he had claimed that she died after falling down the stairs at their home due to consuming alcohol and Valium. However, the autopsy report refutes Peterson’s claims because it concluded that she died from sustaining multiple injuries, including blows to the back of her head with a blunt object.
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The Staircase will be written and directed by Antonio Campos (The Devil All the Time, The Sinner) and Maggie Cohn (American Crime Story), who serve as showrunners. The Max Original is a co-production between HBO Max and Annapurna Television, with Campos and Cohn as executive producers.