Colin Farrell / Oliver North

#IrishTalent: Colin Farrell to play Oliver North in new Amazon series on the Iran-Contra affair

Variety is reporting that Irish star Colin Farrell is teaming up with Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos for a third time, portraying the former United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel Oliver North in a television series for Amazon about the Iran-Contra affair.

The Iran–Contra affair was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo. They hoped, thereby, to fund the Contras in Nicaragua while at the same time negotiating the release of several U.S. hostages. Under the Boland Amendment, further funding of the Contras by the government had been prohibited by Congress. North was National Security Advisor during this time. He claimed partial responsibility for the sale of weapons through intermediaries to Iran, with the proceeds being funnelled back to Contra rebels.

Farrell has previously worked with Lanthimos on The Lobster, and again on the forthcoming The Killing of a Sacred Deer, both co-produced by Element Pictures. This series is based on a script by Enzo Mileti and Scott Wilson, and is being executively produced by Ben Stiller and Nicky Weinstock for Red Hour Films.

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.
Yorgos Lanthimos, Director