I’m starting to think that Ben Affleck only became a director so he could give himself decent roles (after all, he’s not been getting that many elsewhere), as while he stayed off screen in Gone Baby Gone, he gave himself a plum assignment in The Town, and now he’s cast himself as the lead in his next movie, the true-life tale Argo.
Variety reports that Affleck will play Tony Mendez, a CIA agent who hatched a plan to rescue six American hostages in Iran by creating a fake Hollywood production company. The plot involved telling the Iranian hostage-takers that the six American diplomats were actually part of a Hollywood film crew, who were scouting locations in Iran for a sci-fi movie called Argo. The hostages were able to flee the country using those phony identities.
Chris Terrio is adapting the screenplay from a 2007 Wired Magazine article written by Joshuah Bearman. Alan Arkin has already been cast as Hollywood producer Lester Siegel, with John Goodman portraying Oscar-winning special effects artist John Chambers.
It’s not certain when Argo will start shooting, but it’s believed to be in the next few months.