Colin Farrell to play Oliver North in new Iran-Contra series for Amazon
Lobster director Yorgos Lanthimos is set to work with star Colin Farrell again on a new project. According to Variety, the pair are involved in a new series for Amazon about the Iran-Contra affair. Colin will play Oliver North, the U.S. Marine who worked for the National Security Council during the famous events. North claimed to be partially responsible for weapons sales to Iran, with the profits going to the Contras in Nicaragua.
The Iran-Contra series is reportedly in development for the streaming service at the moment, and will be written by Enzo Mileti and Scott Wilson. Ben Stiller and Nicky Weinstock are executive producing for Red Hour Films. Amazon has had a number of recent successes with its original series, including Transparent, The Man in the High Castle and Mozart in the Jungle.
“I’m really excited to be working with Colin again on something quite different to what we have done so far,” Lanthimos told the site. “I look forward to joining forces with Ben and Nicky, who had an excellent casting idea and saw the potential of the material early on and Amazon, who has embraced the project with great enthusiasm. It makes me very confident and excited to be working on a script which, although based on relatively recent history, feels very fresh and relevant to our times.”
“Great projects can stand out for the filmmaker, the talent, or the pure originality of the storytelling. Brilliant projects like this stand out by virtue of having all of those elements,” said Joe Lewis, Amazon Studios’ head of comedy, drama, and VR. “We’re excited to be making stories with Yorgos, Colin, Ben, and Nicky from Enzo and Scott’s incredible scripts.”
Oliver North is currently a host of the Fox News show War Stories with Oliver North. Are you interested in the Iran-Contra series? What do you think of the casting of Colin Farrell? Let us know in the comments or tweet us @ComingSoonnet.