In this combination photo, actor Colin Farrell, left, appears during a portrait session, on May 9, 2016 in Beverly Hills, Calif., and Lt. Col. Oliver North appears before a congressional committee holding hearings on the Iran-Contra affair on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jordan Strauss and J. Scott Applewhite, Files)
LOS ANGELES (AP) --
Colin Farrell is slated to star as Oliver North in a limited series from Amazon.
Yorgos Lanthimos, who directed Farrell in the film "Lobster," will direct the untitled, one-hour series that will cover the Iran-Contra scandal. Ben Stiller is among the executive producers.
North, a decorated U.S. marine and a Fox News commentator, was at the center of the scandal over the sale of weapons to Iran and the channeling of proceeds to the Contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s during Republican President Ronald Reagan's second term.
Lanthimos says he's excited to be working with Farrell again and that the story feels "very fresh and relevant to our times."
Farrell, active in films, starred in the second season of HBO's "True Detective."
Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry, left, and quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) are interviewed by Netflix reporter Jamie Erdahl after an NFL football game against the Houston Texans, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Netflix's first NFL Christmas Day doubleheader ended up being successful globally.
The Baltimore Ravens' 31-2 victory over the Houston Texans averaged 31.3 million while Kansas City's 29-10 win at Pittsburgh averaged 30 million worldwide, according to Netflix's first-party data released on Tuesday.
The two games are also the most streamed in NFL history in the U.S.
The Ravens-Texans contest has an updated average of 27.2 million with Chiefs-Steelers coming in at 25.8 million, according to Nielsen and Netflix.
Both NFL games surpassed the previous mark of 23 million for last season's AFC wild-card game between the Miami Dolphins and Chiefs on Peacock.
Nielsen also said there were 65 million U.S. viewers who tuned in for at least one minute of one of the two games, making it Netflix's most-watched Christmas Day.
Netflix and the NFL said viewers from 218 countries and territories tuned in to at least one of the games.
It was also a nice rebound for Netflix after widespread streaming problems during the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight on Nov. 14. The only noticeable technical glitch was the stream not going to live action and starting at the beginning whenever viewers tuned in.
"In terms of the big picture, it went as well as we could have hoped," said Brandon Riegg, Netflix's vice president of nonfiction series and sports. "Given the weight of expectations, especially coming off a fight, I think we acquitted ourselves as well as we could have hoped. I'm glad that the narrative changed and there was at least an acknowledgment that we didn't run into any of those issues that plagued us before."
The Chiefs-Steelers game was in the daily top 10 in 72 countries with high viewership in Canada, Germany, Ireland and... Read More
