The charismatic neurosurgeon was actually a successful researcher before he starting killing people in the operating room.
Creator/Executive Producer Patrick Macmanus (Homecoming, Happy) knew he had a ready-made hit inDr.
Here, Macmanus talks about how he first discovered the ghastly true story behindDr.
Joshua Jackson as Christopher Duntsch in ‘Dr. Death.'.Scott McDermott/Peacock
Deathwhich starsJoshua Jacksonand drops today onPeacockand whether he thinks Duntsch is truly crazy.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY What isDr.
Death’s origin story?
PATRICK MACMANUSI didn’t hear the podcast first.
It was a gold mine.
you’ve got the option to’t ask for a story that is so ready-made.
I was gifted the opportunity to tell it.
I will say I’m a hundred percent hypochondriac.
My wife laughs at me all the time about it.
This was a very dangerous story for somebody like me to delve into.
I felt sick for most of the last three years in the best possible way.
Did you feel a need to go talk to Christopher Duntsch in prison?
I had an urge to do that very early in the process.
So while I was writing in August and September of 2018, I had asked to reach out.
And at that time, Christopher’s case was actually on appeal.
And so there was no world where they were going to let him speak to me.
And even after he eventually lost that appeal, the train had already left the station.
So we had all of the tools at our disposal.
So what do you think, is he just crazy?
That is a wonderful question.
I’m going to answer it in a couple of different ways.
I don’t think anybody but Christopher Duntsch can answer that question.
He is absolutely a narcissistic sociopath.
I believe that he’s a product of nurture.
I think his upbringing fanned the flames of that sociopathy and that narcissism.
The system was attracted to his very real charms.
I can’t think of a more enormous responsibility than trying to find an actor to play that role.
Jamie Dornan was originally attached to play Christopher in the beginning.
He was a phenomenal partner right up until the pandemic hit and we got shut down.
He stayed in New York while everyone else went home.
Scheduling just got in the way there.
We went into a mode of trying to figure out how to fill those shoes.
I had seen Josh inWhen They See Us.
He had a very small but vitally important role.
I had never seen him like that.
I realized what he really had to offer.
I have to figure out how to humanize this guy.’
Did you talk a lot about how gory to make the surgeries?
It was a conscious choice from the very beginning to not show the surgeries until the finale.
I am somebody who adores the genre of horror.
We went out of our way to let your imagination do the work.
We definitely amped up the sound effects.
But in reality, you don’t see a whole lot until the finale.
Dr. Deathbegins streaming today on Peacock.
