Michael Stuhlbarg joins cast of true-crime drama The Staircase

Michael Stuhlbarg has joined the cast of HBO’s true-crime drama, The Staircase, Deadline reported this week.

The much-anticipated eight-episode series is based on Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s Netflix documentary series of the same name, alongside books and reports exploring the case of author Michael Peterson, who was convicted in 2003 of murdering his wife Kathleen two years earlier. 

Peterson claimed his wife had died after falling down the stairs at home, but an autopsy report concluded that she had endured several blows to the back of her head with a blunt object.

Stuhlbarg, seen most recently in Sky Atlantic drama Your Honor, will play David Rudolf, Peterson’s criminal defence lawyer. He joins Colin Firth (Peterson) and Toni Collette (Kathleen), alongside Rosemarie DeWitt, Juliette Binoche, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Dane DeHaan, Olivia DeJonge and Sophie Turner.

Stuhlbarg will next be seen in the forthcoming film, Rothko, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and starring Russell Crowe.

The drama tells the true story of one woman’s legal battle to protect the legacy  of her late artist father, Mark Rothko.