Colin Farrell has signed on to play infamous U.S. Marine Oliver North for a new Amazon series. The Lobster director Yorgos Lanthimos is slated to direct the series, which will focus on the Iran-Contra controversy.
For all you kids out there, The Iran-Contra affair dealt with the United States’ weapons sales to Iran, and subsequent profits being funneled to Contra in Nicaragua. Oliver North was front and center of the controversy.
“Great projects can stand out for the filmmaker, the talent, or the pure originality of the storytelling,” said Joe Lewis, head of comedy, drama and VR with Amazon Studios. “Brilliant projects like this stand out by virtue of having all of those elements. We’re excited to be making stories with Yorgos, Colin, Ben, and Nicky from Enzo and Scott’s incredible scripts.”
This grab from Amazon is just another step towards the majority of great, compelling storytelling finding its way onto television instead of in the cinema. Amazon is also releasing David O. Russell’s latest, Matthew Weiner’s next show, and Netflix has grabbed Martin Scorsese’s newest gangster film. Things are changing, sure, but there is still a place for traditional features.
Anyway, there’s no firm date set for the series. Colin Farrell has Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled out this summer, and a few other projects to knock out before taking on Oliver North.
