Colin Farrell is re-teaming with The Lobster and The Killing of Sacred Deer co-writer and director Yorgos Lanthimos.
Variety reports that Farrell will play former U.S. marine Oliver North in a limited series for Amazon that focuses on the Iran-Contra affair. The untitled limited series is being written by Enzo Mileti and Scott Wilson. Red Hour Films’ Ben Stiller and Nicky Weinstock are executive producers on the series. The project is still in the works at Amazon, though considering the talent behind it development will hopefully go smoothly.
The limited series will center on North and his involvement in the sale of weapons to Iran in exchange for hostages and money to fund Nicaraguan Contras. The scandal, which saw North tried and court and found not guilty, spanned two years of the Reagan presidency.
“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 Amazon Studios’ head of comedy, drama, and VR Joe Lewis. “We’re excited to be making stories with Yorgos, Colin, Ben, and Nicky from Enzo and Scott’s incredible scripts.”
“I’m really excited to be working with Colin again on something quite different to what we have done so far,” Lanthimos said. “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.”
Lanthimos may be understating just how different a project this is from what he has usually done. The Greek writer/director is most well known for films beautifully strange films like Dogtooth, or something like Alps in which people decide to begin a business built around impersonating the recently deceased to help families cope with their loss. Lanthimos also currently has the comedy series On Becoming A God In Central Florida set up at AMC with Kirsten Dunst set to star.
Amazon has been making bigger and bigger strides in the TV game as of late. Along with the Farrell/Lanthimos series Amazon has Matt Weiner’s series The Romanoffs in the works as well as David O. Russell’s Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore series. Amazon also just released five new pilots to its streaming service including the pilot for Gilmore Girls‘ own Amy Sherman Palladino’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. All of the pilots are now available for Prime members to stream.