HBO credits ‘Jinx’ producers for reigniting interest in Robert Durst

HBO issued its first comment Sunday after the arrest this weekend of the man at the center of the series “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.�

The Times reported early Sunday that authorities arrested Durst, 71, after reviewing new evidence that detectives believe links him to the 2000 slaying of L.A. writer Susan Berman.

As the subject of the HBO series, Durst sat for more than 20 hours of interviews with filmmaker Andrew Jarecki and spoke bluntly about his past. The former New York real estate scion was arrested on Saturday on a murder warrant related to Berman’s slaying, one week after Part 5 of the HBO series aired.

“We simply cannot say enough about the brilliant job that Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling did in producing ‘The Jinx,’� HBO said in a statement sent to The Times on Sunday. “Years in the making, their thorough research and dogged reporting reignited interest in Robert Durst’s story with the public and law enforcement.�

Jarecki had brought Durst’s story to life before in the 2010 feature “All Good Things,� which starred Ryan Gosling as a barely fictionalized version of Durst.

The filmmaker had no comment on Sunday. He told The Times in February that his opinions “didn’t get formed until pretty late in the game.�

“That’s something you’ll see, my evolution personally,� he said. “I kind of want the audience to get there on their own. At the end, they may agree with us, they may not, but they’re not going to be scratching their heads.�

The final episode of the series airs on HBO on Sunday.

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