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The Staircase, HBO Max's latest dramatized version of a perilous murder case, was directed by French filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and his team and is ready to drop the fourth episode.
Starring Colin Firth in the lead role, the series follows the case of Michael Peterson, who was convicted in the murder of his wife, Kathleen Peterson.
Do Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and Denis Poncet appear in HBO Max's The Staircase?
Along with those who were involved at different levels with the murder incident and trial, the HBO series will also portray de Lestrade and other members of the crew, including producer Denis Poncet, who followed novelist Michael Peterson while making the original documentary on the murder trial.
The series shows the filmmakers as they began filming Peterson and his family shortly after he was convicted of murdering his wife. Although Peterson vehemently denied the charges, all evidence pointed to him when his wife's bloody and battered body was found at the bottom of the staircase in their North Carolina home.
Lestrade, Poncet, and his documentary team filmed Michael Peterson through trial and even after, to make the classic Netflix docuseries on which the new HBO Max show is based.
All about Jean-Xavier de Lestrade
Jean-Xavier de Lestrade started out by studying journalism and law in Paris, after which he went on to create his own TV news agency in 1987, Tribulations. For five years Lestrade directed and produced within Tribulations while also reporting for European television.
However, in 1992 he moved on to become a freelance director so that he could specialize in documentaries that mainly scrutinize and provide a critical look at society.
Since 1995, he has been associated with the producer Denis Poncet. The two worked together in various capacities, first within the company of the French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier, and then within their own venture Maha Productions.
Lestrade's ninth documentary Murder on a Sunday Morning, which was released in 2001, won the Academy Award for best documentary in 2002.
Lestrade is portrayed by Vincent Vermignon in HBO Max's The Staircase.
Who is David Poncet?
Denis Poncet is a French producer and writer known for Sin City Law (2007), Murder on a Sunday Morning (2001) and The Staircase (2004), the last two which he collaborated with filmmaker Lestrade.
Apart from his involvement with the production, Poncet was also a reporter and later a bureau chief for the French public in Washington. Prior to his involvement with documentaries, he was the director of RFI French Public Radio International Service. It was only in 1992 that he became a producer of documentaries.
The new HBO Max adaptation of the Michael Peterson case, The Staircase, offers a fresh perspective and a new dimension to the Peterson case which may bring to light further questions about the murder/accident.
