Given that they enjoyed working on The Lobster enough to quickly set up another film, the incoming The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, it's not surprising to see Colin Farrell and director Yorgos Lanthimos reuniting again. But the subject matter – Oliver North and the 1980s Iran-Contra affair – is a little more surprising.
Still, the pair has signed deals to make a miniseries about the affair at Amazon, with Enzo Mileti and Scott Wilson providing the scripts and Ben Stiller and Nicky Weinstock on to produce via their Red Hour Films company.
The Iran-Contra scandal saw American officials secretly selling weapons to Iran in the 1980s (subject of an arms embargo at the time) and sending the money to the Contra militant groups in Nicaragua while also negotiating the release of hostages. Lieutenant Colonel North, a decorated marine with a seat on the National Security Council, was one of the people behind the plan, and destroyed evidence once it was rumbled. He was arrested, and ended up convicted of accepting an illegal gratuity, aiding and abetting in the obstruction of a congressional inquiry, and ordering the destruction of documents through his secretary. In 1989, he was sentenced to a three-year suspended prison term, two years probation, $150,000 in fines and 21,000 hours of community service, though in 1990, his convictions were reversed. North went on run for the senate and hosted a show on Fox News.
"I’m really excited to be working with Colin again on something quite different to what we have done so far," Lanthimos tells Variety. "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." Oh, government officials caught lying? We can see that.
This one's still bubbling away, but expect all involved to get moving on it once their schedules align and the scripts are in. Farrell will next be seen in Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled (out 23 June) and is on board Dan Gilroy's Inner City, which should be shooting soon.