Leigh Janiak (Fear Street) is joined to direct two episodes of The Staircase, HBO Max’s limited series adaptation dependent on the true-crime docuseries.
The eight-episode drama from Christine director Antonio Campos and American Crime Story writer Maggie Cohn investigates the life of Michael Peterson (Colin Firth), his rambling North Carolina family and the suspicious death of his wife, Kathleen (Toni Collette). Campos is directing six of the eight episodes.
The series depends on the docuseries and different books and reports looking into it of Michael Peterson, who was sentenced in 2003 for killing Kathleen two years sooner. The charge was diminished to manslaughter in 2017, and Peterson thusly was released from jail. He had claimed his wife died subsequent to tumbling down the steps at their home in the wake of consuming alcohol and Valium, yet an autopsy concluded she passed on from various wounds, including hits to the rear of her head with a blunt object.
Rosemarie DeWitt, Juliette Binoche, Parker Posey, Odessa Young, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Dane DeHaan, Olivia DeJonge, Sophie Turner, Michael Stuhlbarg and Tim Guinee additionally star.
The Staircase is composed and executive produced by Campos and Cohn, who likewise serve as showrunners. The series is a co-production between HBO Max and Annapurna TV.
“The Staircase has haunted me since I watched the brilliant documentary years ago” said Janiak. “I couldn’t be more excited and honored to help Antonio and Maggie bring their vision to life as we show new sides to this complex, intense story.”
Janiak is coming off the new hit Netflix movie trilogy Fear Street, which she co-composed, directed and executive produced. Inspired by R.L. Stine’s best-selling horror series, it comprises of three particular movies shot back-to-back-to-back with a similar cast in three different period settings, all associated by one epic narrative. She recently directed the feature Honeymoon. On the TV side, Janiak directed and executive delivered Lauren Oliver’s Panic pilot for Amazon, which handled a series request. She additionally directed an episode of Outcast for Cinemax, alongside various episodes of Scream for MTV. Janiak is repped by Verve and Morris Yorn Barnes.
