Ever since The Town was released, Ben Affleck’s name has been mentioned in connection with all manner of projects, however he’s been fairly picky about his next directorial outing. Now it appears he’s picked what he’d like to do, as THR reports that he’s in talks to take the reins on Argo.
He’s only in early negotiations at the moment, so it could all fall through, but he’s definitely interested. The film will be based on a Wired magazine article by Joshua Bearman called How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran. The title is a bit of a plot description in itself, and centres on how during the occupation of the US Embassy in Iran in 1979, a rescue effort was mounted by the CIA and the Canadian government to extract six American diplomats. Using disguise experts, they concocted a plan that involved a ‘crew’ scouting for shooting locations for a fake sci-fi flick called Argo, using the ruse to help the diplomats flee the country.
Interestingly the plan also involved legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby, whose drawings and designs for the fictitious film were used to sell it as real.
George Clooney and Grant Heslov are producing the flick, which is said to be wryly humorous.