Clooney in Canadian Caper / 'Argo' / Escape from Tehran

blubelle wrote:I think I'll buy him a pair of jeans that aren't baggy in the butt. Then I'll remove the old ones. Then I'll......... After that maybe I'll put the new ones on.

From NBC Chicago

Inside Grant Heslov's Partnership With George Clooney and Their Next Film

BY Scott Huver // Friday, Oct 14, 2011

. . . “Argo” is the next film from Heslov and Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures, a bizarre true-life story set during the 1979 hostage crisis in Iran, in which CIA uses a fake Hollywood movie shoot to enter Tehran and try to smuggle out a small group of Americans hiding out at the Canadian embassy. The film stars and is directed by another multi-hyphenate: Ben Affleck.

“Somebody in my company brought me article that was in 'Details' Magazine. I read it and I said, 'This would make a fantastic film. Let’s get the option,'” says Heslov. “Then we hired this guy [Chris Terrio] to write it, who really hadn't written much, and he wrote a fantastic script. George and I were going to make it. Neither one of us was going to direct it. We were going to find a director, and maybe George was going to be in it, depending on who the director was. And while we were making 'Ides of March' we got a call from the studio saying that Ben Affleck had read it and was really interested in directing it and possibly being in it. We said, 'That sounds really interesting,' because we thought that his last film ("The Town") was great. So George and I got on the phone with Ben and we had a long talk and talked about it and decided, 'Yeah, you should do it.' It's cool. We just finished our fifth week of shooting.”

As an intriguing side-note, the real-life CIA hired comic book artist Jack Kirby – co-creator of Captain America, Thor, the Fantastic Four and countless more characters – to create a series of storyboards and conceptual designs that helped sell the illusion that a real movie was going to be made. “Jack Kirby is in it, yeah – not the Jack Kirby, but yes, “ says Heslov. “It's a small part, but the storyboards play a significant role in the piece. We've actually shot the Jack Kirby stuff already with Michael Parks. He's like in every Quentin Tarantino movie and he was a big star when he was younger.”

From Rama Screen

First Official Image Of Ben Affleck’s ARGO
December 26, 2011Rama

WB unleashed its previews of its movies in 2012, included is the first official photo above of ARGO, the upcoming film directed by and starring Ben Affleck.

Affleck directs ARGO, political thriller with wry humor based on a Wired Magazine article titled How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran about the Tehran hostage crisis.

Produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, the team behind Good Night And Good Luck

Scripted by Chris Terrio, the article was written by “Joshuah Bearman and published in April 2007, the story centers on how, during the occupation of the American embassy by Iranians in 1979, a rescue effort was mounted by the CIA and the Canadian government to extract six U.S. diplomats.

The CIA used a disguise expert and concocted a scenario that involved the six being a Hollywood crew scouting a movie titled Argo. Under those disguises, they were able to flee the country.
Of interest to comic geeks is the involvement of legendary comics creator Jack Kirby; the artist’s movie designs and drawings were used by the CIA to sell the existence of the movie.”

Alan Arkin will play Hollywood producer Lester Siegel, an O.S.S. veteran described as part bookie and part rabbi.
John Goodman will play Oscar winning makeup artist, John Chambers (Planet Of The Apes)

Ben Affleck wil play Tony Mendez, the CIA exfiltration expert who created the fake Hollywood production

Bryan Cranston will play Jack O’Donnell, “an Irish CIA agent from Boston and Dwight Eisenhower’s wartime bodyguard”

Taylor Schilling will play Affleck’s character’s wife, Christina Mendez, a former teacher who worries for her husband going off on a dangerous mission

Tate Donovan will play Bob Anders, a U.S. embassy consular officer in Tehran

Nelson Franklin will play a reporter.

Here’s the film’s official synopsis: Based on true events, “Argo” chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis — the truth of which was unknown by the public for decades.
On November 4, 1979, as the Iranian revolution reaches its boiling point, militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. But, in the midst of the chaos, six Americans manage to slip away and find refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador. Knowing it is only a matter of time before the six are found out and likely killed, a CIA “exfiltration” specialist named Tony Mendez (Affleck) comes up with a risky plan to get them safely out of the country. A plan so incredible, it could only happen in the movies.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Warner Bros Moves ‘Argo’ and ‘The Gangster Squad’ Release Dates

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday April 9, 2012

Warner Bros is tweaking its 2012 movie release schedule. The Ben Affleck-directed Argo moves back to Oct 12. (It had been slated for Sept 14.) Oct 12 had been reserved for The Gangster Squad, which will get a release date shortly. This is the second time the Ruben Fleischer-directed cops-and-mb crime drama set in 1940s-’50s LA has been moved. It was originally scheduled for Oct. 19. The film stars Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin and Nick Nolte.

Affleck’s Argo is, like Gangster Squad, a fact-based project. This project focuses on a covert operation to rescue a group of Americans during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. Six of the 52 Americans taken hostage during Iran’s revolution managed to find refuge at the home of the Canadian ambassador. Affleck stars in the film as well. Alan Arkin, Bryan Cranston and John Goodman are also featured in the cast.

silly girl wrote:This looks really good....wasn't there a Canadian movie made about this years ago? I remember being intrigued by the story....I still have the magazines from when the hostages were released....

blubelle wrote:Is G one of the producers?

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Toronto Oscar Talk: Ben Affleck’s ‘Argo’ And Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘The Master’

By PETE HAMMOND | Saturday September 8, 2012

Just as it did in its sneak previews in Telluride, Ben Affleck’s Argo killed in Toronto at its official World Premiere Friday at the Roy Thomson Hall. And why not? After all, some of the plot revolves around the Canadians helping to shelter 6 Americans from the radical Iranians who held nearly 60 others hostage for well over a year in 1979. And the Warner Bros brass turned out in force seeing the film receive a highly enthusiastic standing ovation. That included Jeff Robinov, Sue Kroll, Dan Fellman who know they have a likely hit on their hands.

At the after-party, director/star Affleck told me this was one of the best screenings he has ever had for a movie. “They got every reference and recognized all the Canadian names we put in there,” he said. After the highs of the Fall festival circuit, Affleck is just hoping filmgoers turn out when it opens October 12th. “I am doing something I haven’t done for a movie in years and hitting many different cities to promote the film,” he told me.
Making the trek to Toronto was co-star Bryan Cranston, the three-time Emmy winner and current nominee for Breaking Bad. He superbly plays Affleck’s CIA boss who okays the crazy plan to create a fake movie production in order to smuggle the 6 Americans out of the Canadian Ambassador’s residence and onto a plane out of Iran without the radical officials figuring it all out.

Cranston told me he knew it was something special the minute he read the script. “It was all there on the page. As an actor you just pray for these kinds of parts,” he said. It was the first film actually allowed to shoot at the CIA headquarters although they confiscated his iPad in the process. Cranston is a brand new voting member of the Academy and told me he is very excited about getting to fill out an Oscar ballot for the first time. Maybe he can vote for himself. Both he and Alan Arkin who plays the producer of the fake film are deserving of supporting consideration. Cranston still has another 8 episodes of Breaking Bad to complete before the series ends for good next summer. He has no idea what will happen. “I never know which direction the writers are going to take us,” he said.

'Argo' builds on Best Picture Oscar buzz at TIFF

"Argo" is now firmly established as an Oscar frontrunner after a rousing reception at the Toronto film festival. The last five Best Picture winners all unspooled here and this third film by actor turned director Ben Affleck checks a lot of the same boxes.

"Argo" is a deft thriller set against the backdrop of the revolution in 1979 Tehran. When the American embassy is overrun by fundamentalists, six diplomats escape and take refuge with the Canadian ambassador. To ferret them out of the country, the CIA cooks up a cover story that they are part of a production team scouting locations for a Hollywood movie.

The film came to Toronto fresh from a sneak peek at Telluride that had visitors to that high altitude town swooning with delight. Not surprisingly, the Canadian audience ate up the homegrown references. Academy members may well respond to the positive portrayal of Hollywood in the picture which will be released on Oct. 12.

The whole article is at GoldDerby LINK - They have a prediction prompt for the Oscars, too.