Colin Farrell to star as Oliver North in Iran-Contra series for Amazon

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

I finally got around to watching THE LOBSTER this past weekend (loved it) and now Variety has reported that Colin Farrell is set to reunite with director Yorgos Lanthimos for an Amazon TV series about Oliver North and his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair. The project is still in development as they await scripts, but Farrell would star as Oliver North with Lanthimos directing the limited series.

This will actually be the second time Colin Farrell and Yorgos Lanthimos will have worked together following THE LOBSTER, as Farrell is set to star in the upcoming THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER as a surgeon who forms a familial bond with a sinister teenage boy, with disastrous results. As for the Amazon series, this will be Farrell's first time back on TV since starring as Detective Ray Velcoro on the second season of True Detective. In regards to working with Farrell once more, Lanthimos said:

I’m really excited to be working with Colin again on something quite different to what we have done so far. 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.

The Iran-Contra affair took place during the presidency of Ronald Reagan when the United States government sold weapons to Iran in exchange for hostages and used the profits to fund the Nicaraguan Contras. Once word of this leaked out, retired U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North was tried in court, where he was found not guilty, but it was said that he was taking the blame for Reagan. Definitely a lot of fascinating material for a TV show to delve into, but before his work begins on the Amazon series, Colin Farrell will be starring alongside Denzel Washington in Dan Gilroy's INNER CITY.

Any American Dad fans out there? This little tune immediately stuck in my head after reading this news.