Michael Peterson Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

The Staircase, Toni Collette dies – a lot. The Sky Atlantic show sees her playing Kathleen Peterson, the wife of American novelist Michael Peterson (played by Colin Firth) who was convicted of killing her and sentenced to life in prison in 2003, despite maintaining she had died after falling down the stairs. In 2017, Peterson was released after his charge was reduced to manslaughter and he was sentenced to time already served.

Naman Ramachandran U.K.-based sales and distribution outfit Blue Finch Films has boarded worldwide rights, excluding Canada, to 1980s-set wrestling action-horror “Dark Match.” The film is headlined by professional wrestler and rock musician Chris Jericho and written and directed by Lowell Dean (“Wolfcop”). The film will launch later this year with its festival premiere to be announced imminently. Blue Finch will begin sales at the upcoming Cannes Film Market.

EXCLUSIVE: Wattpad/Webtoons has hired Josh Campbell & Matt Stuecken (10 Cloverfield Lane, Horizon Line) to adapt I’m The Grim Reaper from the Webtoon created by Grave Weaver. 

EXCLUSIVE: Terrifier 2 and 3 sales firm The Coven is making its first foray into production with exorcist horror Shadow Of God, which quietly wrapped principal photography in Calgary, Canada, last month.

Romantic Charles Bronson treated his ex-wife to a "luxury" hamper for Christmas - including wine, cheese and chocolate. The infamous lag sent Irene Dunroe the festive gift from inside HMP Woodhill.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Renowned alumni of the Jeffersonian Institute pulled out their security badges and patches to assemble Friday morning for a lively “Bones” writers strike reunion picket outside Fox Studios. The gathering of writers, actors, directors and crew members from the Fox drama series proved once again that “Bones” was one of TV’s happiest sets during its 12-season run from 2005-2017. Star Emily Deschanel, who played forensic anthropologist Temperence “Bones” Brennan on the procedural, was in attendance at the picket held on Day 67 of Writers Guild of America striket. So were series showrunners Hart Hanson, Stephen Nathan, Jonathan Collier and Michael Peterson and writer-producers including Liz Benjamin, Dean Lopata, Janet Lin and Karine Rosenthal.

Notorious prisoner Charles Bronson has lost a Parole Board bid to be freed from jail.

EXCLUSIVE: Wrestling star Chris Jericho, fresh off a supporting role in horror breakout Terrifier 2, is set to lead cast in wrestling-themed horror Dark Match.

As a kid, actor/filmmaker Rob Grabow moved around Alaska, where dog sledding, mushing, and weight pulling— as well as the humans and dogs that participate in those activities—are vibrant elements of the community. A few years back, Grabow met a dogsled musher who was having a difficult journey with alcoholism and addiction, who credited his sobriety in large part to one of his dogs; a high-spirited Alaskan husky.

EXCLUSIVE: UK sales firm 101 Films International has acquired worldwide sales rights (excluding North America) for drama feature Marlene, and will launch sales in Toronto this week.

Hunter Ingram Each morning as Toni Collette brushes her teeth, an owl stares back at her.The stoic bird of prey is not perched outside her window but rather ornately sitting on her countertop, contorted into the shape of a ceramic coffee mug that she places her toothbrush into before she starts her day.“It’s there looking at me daily — twice a day if I’m dentally honest,” Collette says. “Maybe I need a new receptacle.”Even if its days as her morning companion are numbered, the mug is a surreal artifact of her newly Emmy-nominated turn as Kathleen Peterson, a North Carolina woman found dead at the bottom of her stairs in 2001 — a case dramatized by HBO Max’s true crime limited series “The Staircase.” The shocking death occupied headlines for months as her husband, Michael Peterson (played by Colin Firth), was tried and convicted of her murder — all of it later chronicled in a 2004 French documentary also called “The Staircase.” The making of that doc was part of the 2022 series.After years behind bars and later house arrest, Peterson was released in 2017 when he accepted an Alford plea, a paradoxical agreement in which he pleaded guilty but maintained his innocence.

Marta Balaga Avalon Fast was a young director to watch at this year’s Fantasia, bringing her 2022 feature “Honeycomb” to the Canadian fest as well as upcoming horror “CAMP,” presented in Frontieres’ official selection.Set to be produced by Michael Peterson (Peterson Polaris Corp), Peter Kuplowsky (Lowsky Productions), Taylor Nodrick and Fast herself, it will see a camp counselor for troubled youth who, reeling from a past tragedy, starts suspecting her female colleagues of witchcraft in service of a woodland spirit.The project, currently in advanced development, will allow the audience to feel a “real sense of magic,” promises Fast. “I want it to be bold,” she tells Variety.“I love [Nicolas Cage-starrer] ‘Mandy’, which has been a huge inspiration.

also features Tom Brooke, Hannah Onslow, Toby Jones, Crystal Clarke and Tanya Moodie in supporting roles.Set in the South Coast of England in the 1980s, “Empire of Light” is a love story that revolves around an old cinema. According to Searchlight Pictures’ official description, it is “a powerful and poignant story about human connection and the magic of cinema.”Mendes produced the film with Pippa Harris for his Neal Street Productions.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorHBO Max’s “The Staircase” marks the fifth collaboration for music supervisor Randall Poster and creator Antonio Campos. Poster says that the journey has helped build a musical rapport. When it came to finding the perfect needle drop moments for the true-crime series starring Colin Firth and Toni Collette, Poster looked to music that would help tell the story rather than rely on the musical tastes of the characters.“The Staircase” retells the death of Kathleen Peterson, played by Collette, from a fall from a staircase in her home.

BBC Strictly Come Dancing and BBC Breakfast star Mike Bushell has been smacked in the face with a ball in a major mishap. Mike was on Celebrity Catchpoint with Louise Minchin.

Michael Peterson likely won’t watch “The Staircase” but he has plenty to say about HBO Max’s dramatization of his life.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorWelcome to this week’s “Just for Variety.”Patrick Schwarzenegger can’t reveal any details about his work in the upcoming spinoff of Amazon’s “The Boys” — no, he won’t confirm reports that he’s playing a character named Golden Boy — but he admits that he has shown his father, Arnold Schwarzenegger, photos from the set.“He looked at me and he was like, ‘What the fuck are you filming?’” Patrick tells me on this week’s episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “I was like, ‘It’s this show called ‘The Boys.’ … You have to watch an episode to understand it, or else I can’t articulate what happens in it.”“The Boys” producers reached out to Schwarzenegger for the spinoff after meeting him years ago when he auditioned to play the character of Homelander on the original series.

HBO Max‘s limited series The Staircase wrapped up this week and left fans with a lot of questions to no definitive answer on if Michael Peterson killed his wife, Kathleen.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorWhat’s harder to work with when it comes to writing a limited series — true stories taken from real life, or the stuff of fiction? A panel of top writers debated the challenges of working with headline-driven and historical material during the final hour of Variety‘s Night in the Writers’ Room on June 9 at 1 Hotel in West Hollywood.“There’s a little bit of a tightrope-walk in a true story that you don’t necessarily have to walk in fiction,” said Dustin Lance Black, the writer-producer behind FX’s “Under the Banner of Heaven.” He noted that the series, about the 1984 murder of a woman and her infant daughter in Salt Lake City, deals with three intertwined stories, one of which is fictional. “That one to me, I had a slightly easier time with.

Addie Morfoot ContributorAntonio Campos’ depiction of documentary filmmakers Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and Sophie Brunet in HBO Max’s “The Staircase” has led to a public dispute over their portrayal in the miniseries adaptation. But now, the real-life main subject of both series – Michael Peterson – is speaking out in an exclusive series of emails to Variety.Peterson’s wife Kathleen was found dead at the bottom of the staircase of their North Carolina home in 2001.

Sasha Urban editorHBO Max’s “The Staircase,” which concluded Thursday, has its share of revelations for longtime followers of the true crime case. But even for viewers who watched every bit of the 2004 docuseries, one special line from the dramatized version undeniably stands out.

Emily Longeretta In Variety’s new feature, My FYC, Emmy contenders share what inspires them and what TV they’re focusing on — and rooting for.Courteney Cox has done a bit of everything: danced in a famous music video with Bruce Springsteen; produced a game show; starred in one of the most famous sitcoms of all time and survived a dozen fights with Ghostface.So, what inspires an actor with so many successes? Something completely different. While Cox’s own show, Starz’s “Shining Vale,” which she both produces and stars in, is an Emmy contender in the comedy category, she hasn’t been watching shows that are making her laugh. Instead, she’s been watching true crime stories, first with HBO Max’s “The Staircase.” “Colin Firth has gotten that character down.

Kate Garraway had quite the confession to make when she returned to Good Morning Britain today. The presenter was back at the helm of the ITV news programme on Thursday (May 26) alongside Ben Shephard.

Viewers weren’t sure what to think of one “This Morning” guest on Wednesday.

This Morning viewers were quickly engrossed as Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield sat down with Michael Peterson. The 78-year-old joined the pair in the studio on the ITV daytime show on Wednesday (May 25) as a drama series about his own very real situation is released.

Clayton Davis Toni Collette has asserted herself as one of the most versatile actresses of her generation, proven once again by her phenomenal work in the HBO Max limited series “The Staircase.”Variety has confirmed that Collette has been submitted for an Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a limited series for her turn as Kathleen Peterson, the dead wife (accidental or murdered?) of Michael, played by Emmy nominee and Oscar winner Colin Firth.Read more: Variety’s Awards Circuit Emmys Predictions HubThe miniseries, based on the documentary of the same name that steamed on Netflix in 2018, tells the story of Michael Peterson, a crime novelist, who is accused of bludgeoning his wife Kathleen to death after she is found at the bottom of a staircase in their home. As the clues and investigation unravel, a French documentary team begins filming the events, creating unexpected consequences.

Sophie Turner wears a cute daisy crocheted bucket hat while out to lunch at Wally’s with husband Joe Jonas on Tuesday afternoon (May 17) in Beverly Hills, Calif.

A war of words has broken out between the filmmakers who have brought audiences two different versions, nearly two decades apart, of the real-life mystery behind The Staircase.

Director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade won critical acclaim for his 2005 documentary “The Staircase”, chronicling the trial of novelist Michael Peterson, accused of murdering his wife in 2001.

Patrick Schwarzenegger is proving he’s got the chops.

Patrick Schwarzenegger says his father, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is "obsessed" with Patrick's new crime-drama series "The Staircase." In an interview with Insider, Patrick shared that his dad has been supportive of his new role and claimed he didn’t turn to "The Terminator" star for any career advice. "A lot of sons go to their father for advice with anything. I definitely go to him like that, but I didn't go to him for this specific character," Patrick told the outlet.

Sasha Urban editorScrolling through Michael Stuhlbarg’s filmography on Wikipedia, you’ll notice that quite a few of his roles are written in blue font, with hyperlinks that lead to other Wikipedia pages. The real-life characters he’s taken on include former New York Times executive editor Abe Rosenthal in “The Post,” Golden Age-actor Edward G.

Katcy Stephan SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers through Episode 4 of “The Staircase,” which hit HBO Max on May 12.Despite her death being the catalyst for a highly publicized court case and miniseries, not much is publicly known about Kathleen Peterson’s life and personality. “The Staircase,” HBO Max’s true crime miniseries from Antonio Campos and Maggie Cohn, seeks to change that by fleshing out Kathleen as a human being. “I just love that the show on the whole is a more balanced view of their family,” Toni Collette, who plays Kathleen Peterson in the series, tells Variety.

The first three episodes of The Staircase are streaming now on HBO Max and fans have a lot of questions already.

Police responding to Michael Peterson‘s call that his wife had fallen down stairs encountered a truly gruesome scene when they arrived at the house.

Spoilers for “The Staircase” documentary and HBO Max series follow.In the early hours of Dec. 9, 2001, novelist Michael Peterson made a panicked, tearful 911 call: He had found his wife Kathleen unconscious and bloody at the bottom of a staircase in their Durham, North Carolina, house.