Ben Affleck To Direct & Star In 'Argo'

[Sgt.Pepper]

Ben Affleck's next film is titled Argo and it's gearing up to start shooting soon.

Plot:

The true story tells how the CIA and the Canadian government teamed up to rescue six U.S. diplimats who had been taken hostage by Iranians in 1979. The CIA developed a ruse that involved convincing the Iranians that the diplomats were a Hollywood film crew scouting locations for a movie called “Argo.”

If anyone is interested, here's the article which the film is adapting from.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.05/feat_cia.html

So far, only Affleck and Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) is part of the cast with more casting announcements coming soon.

After the excellent Gone Baby Gone and the disappointing yet decent The Town, I'm looking forward to this because I'm interested to see how Affleck develop as a director.

 

[Doctor Jones]

This sounds like it could be great. Affleck should stick to directing. He can only improve. He's a good one already, but this sounds like it could be his best.

 

[Crockett]

I've read the article like 3 years ago, such an incredible story I can't wait to see how Affleck will handle it in the big screen. While I didn't like The Town as much as Gone Baby Gone, it's a passable movie. Affleck is still a relativity new director and has the potential to be a really good one.

 

[Asgard]

Holy ****. This Tony Mendez cat is ****ing awesome.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

John Goodman In-Talks For 'Argo'

Exclusive: John Goodman is in negotiations to join the political thriller "Argo", which Ben Affleck is directing for Warner Bros.

Goodman would play John Chambers, the Oscar-winning "Planet of the Apes" makeup artist called in to help sell the ruse.

Source

The cast is great so far and I can't wait to see who else will join the film.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

Ben Affleck Cast Himself As The Lead In 'Argo'

EXCLUSIVE: Finding a leading man can be difficult these days, but director Ben Affleck has found the perfect one for "Argo"; he cast himself.

Affleck is set to star as Tony Mendez, the CIA exfiltration expert who created a fake Hollywood production to get six Americans who were hiding out at the Canadian ambassador's out of Iran.

Source

Back when it was announced that Ben Affleck was going to direct Argo, it was mentioned that Affleck might also star in the film as well though it wasn't clear which role he might play, but now we know that he will play the lead role.

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=79114

Source: Variety
June 28, 2011

Bryan Cranston Eyes Argo


Casting on Ben Affleck's Argo continues as Bryan Cranston is named by Variety as likely to join Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin and John Goodman in the true espionage story.

The film is about how the CIA teamed with the Canadian government to rescue six U.S. diplomats who'd been taken hostage at the American embassy by a group of Iranians in 1979 by pretending that they were part of a Hollywood film crew scouting a movie called "Argo."

Cranston, who next appears in Universal's Larry Crowne, would portray CIA Agent Jack O'Donnell against Affleck as Agent Tony Mendez, the man responsible for mounting the fake production.

The screenplay was adapted by Chris Terrio from Joshua Bearman's April 2007 Wired magazine article, "How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue American from Tehran" and it's being produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov's Smoke House to be released by Warner Bros.

 

[HighFivingMF]

Can you guys leave so I can make love to this?

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

The cast seems to become better and better every day. I can't wait to see who else will be joining this.

 

[Crockett]

Cranston? Um, yes please.

 

[HighFivingMF]

Kevin Smith stated today on the newest Hollywood Babble-On that Affleck liked Red State so much he lifted 3 cast members for Argo. He said, of course, Goodman was one of them, but the other 2 haven't been announced yet so he couldn't say who. Just that it wasn't Ralph Garman, his Babble-On co-host.

Here's the cast of Red State (minus Goodman, Garman, and Smith's wife) if anyone would care to speculate:
Michael Parks
Melissa Leo
Kerry Bishé
Haley Ramm
Michael Angarano
Kyle Gallner
Nicholas Braun
Stephen Root
James Parks
Kevin Pollak
Matt L. Jones
Kevin Alejandro
Anna Gunn
Betty Aberlin
Marc Blucas
Elizabeth Tripp
Alexa Nikolas
Hoc Sy

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

Interested to see which actors is joining Argo. I hope they announce who they are soon.

 

[Fanticon]

After the excellent Gone Baby Gone and the disappointing yet decent The Town, I'm looking forward to this because I'm interested to see how Affleck develop as a director.

The only thing that was disappointing about the town was the extended cut. movie was fine on its own.

Anyway this sounds like its going to be good, was only a matter of time before Affleck went for the based on a true story oscar baitt:

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

The only thing that was disappointing about the town was the extended cut. movie was fine on its own.

Anyway this sounds like its going to be good, was only a matter of time before Affleck went for the based on a true story oscar baitt:

The movie alone is decent, but a terrible adaption of the novel. What I like in the book, is that MacRay and Frawley never met face-to-face until the very end, though they have these "close encounters". To me, it makes the game of cat and mouse much more exciting. The other thing, is that the book has a darker ending as opposed to the movie's more "uplifting" one.

I for one, would love to see the original 4-hour cut of The Town, which I think is virtually the book on the silver screen.

 

[Hunter Rider]

The movie alone is decent, but a terrible adaption of the novel. What I like in the book, is that MacRay and Frawley never met face-to-face until the very end, though they have these "close encounters". To me, it makes the game of cat and mouse much more exciting. The other thing, is that the book has a darker ending as opposed to the movie's more "uplifting" one.

I for one, would love to see the original 4-hour cut of The Town, which I think is virtually the book on the silver screen.

I don't know what the books ending was but the movies certainly sucked as the character didn't earn it, he was a *****ebag, just less of a *****ebag than Renner's character.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

Not going to spoil the book's ending, as I hate spoiling for other people. But I do recommend Prince of Thieves, it's fantastic.

Although now that I think of it, the movie's ending ain't so bad, as you were left wondering if Doug and Claire would end up together or not, and if Frawley gave up his hunt for Doug.

 

[Billy the Poet]

The script review!!!

http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/2011/07/argo.html

Spoiler

No, Argo is not a prequel to Fargo. But I will say that the Coen Brothers could go absolutely bat-****ing- insane with this script. It’s that bizarre. And it’s appropriate we’re talking about titles because Argo is a great example of how a bad or vague or uninspiring title can affect the chances of a script getting read. Lots of people have been telling me about Argo. But every time I considered picking it up, I kept thinking of that title. “Argo.” It just sounded boring.

Now of course this was developed through a production company – and is NOT a spec script – so different rules apply. They don’t have to wow a reader with a great title because the people they’re sending it to already know what they’ll be reading. You don’t have that luxury unfortunately. Your title is your 60 million dollar marketing campaign. It is the only billboard the world will see before they read your work. Better make it good.

Anyway, Argo throws you right into the heart of the hurricane to start its 118 pages of craziness. So much is going on, in fact, that I can’t possibly explain it all. But the nuts and bolts is that it’s 1979, and CIA agent Tony Mendez is extracting another CIA agent out of an impossible to get-out-of situation. This is what Tony does. He charges in when Americans are in trouble and gets them out of sticky situations. As you’ll see, this will become important later on.

Now for those of you who have never been to Los Angeles and seen the Persian empire that now resides at the heart of the town, you probably don’t know much about the revolution that happened back in Iran in 1979. I don’t claim to be an authority on it either, but basically, the lower class rose up and booted the upper class out. All the rich Persians needed somewhere to go, so they flew to Los Angeles. Now at the time, the U.S. had an embassy in Tehran, Iran’s capital. So the Iranian people stormed the embassy and held a bunch of the workers hostage for over a year. It was a huge brouhaha and the U.S. government looked like bumbling idiots for how long it took them to resolve the thing.

What not a lot of people know, is that five of the Americans at the embassy were able to escape before it was overrun. And they went into hiding in the city. Argo is about a team led by Tony Mendez tasked with getting those people out of there.

Now for obvious reasons, Americans couldn’t just drop into Iran at the time. I mean sure, you could book a vacation there if you really wanted to. But you’d probably end up with a permanent blindfold and a really hefty late fee on that Chevy Caprice rental. So the CIA had to be more clever. Hence, Tony and his crew came up with the idea to create a fake Canadian film (the biggest Canadian film in history) that wanted to shoot the bulk of its movie in Iran. They would go there to “scout” their film, covertly grab the 5 Americans, then get on a plane to freedom.

Here’s where Argo gets fun though. The movie they were “making” was basically the next Star Wars. Or “the Canadian Star Wars.” This would’ve been a huge deal back then, since Star Wars had only hit theaters two years earlier. This film, of course, is titled, “Argo.” (no confirmation yet on whether this later became “Delgo”)

Now the CIA knew that they needed this to look legit. So they actually found a movie producer and started up pre-production on the thing. They started casting. They drew storyboards. They even wrote a script! And a lot of these people (if I’m to understand correctly) had no idea they were part of a secret CIA operation.

The heart of the movie is once they get all their ducks in a row, they head over to Tehran – the most enemy of enemy territories at the time – and grab their hidden embassy members. But they can’t just leave right away. They’re on a locked-in pre-approved schedule with the Iranian government. So they have to go out, do some location scouting, all with the newly acquired members, who know nothing about filmmaking. It’s pretty riveting stuff. And overall just a wicked-awesome idea, as Ben Affleck would say.

Here’s the first thing I realized while reading Argo. There’s never been another movie like it. It’s completely unique. It’s its own thing. And it wasn’t until I realized that, that it became clear how valuable a commodity the project was. I mean you have a spy movie here. You have an international crisis movie. And you have a comedy of sorts of these people putting together a fake Star Wars film. Can you imagine the possibilities?

This isn’t in the script but I’m hoping Affleck realizes the potential here. Imagine being able to do fake 1979 acting auditions for roles in the film? Imagine putting sets together for a Star Wars rip-off movie? Shooting test scenes? This movie could be so ****ing hilarious and out there. And again, it’s like a director’s dream. You get to cover so many different areas with the material.

I only had two big problems with the screenplay. The first was the first act, which read like Aaron Sorkin plowed through a case of Miller High Life then ingested half a pound of speed. We’re jumping around to all these different people walking and talking in important hallways in different countries and it was way too ****ing much. It was so chaotic, in fact, that I almost gave up after 20 pages. It was a mess. Luckily, once we shift to the actual plan, the script finds its focus.

This is something I see more on the amateur level actually. Really ambitious first acts with tons of stuff going on but zero focus. You have to remember this is the first thing your reader reads – the first act. If there’s 50 characters in 15 pages and we’ve jumped from 5 different continents, chances are we’re not going to be intrigued. We’re going to be annoyed. You can create mystery in your first act. But you must do so with focus. It must feel like there’s a plan. I didn’t feel that in Argo at all.

Also, the central set piece seems to be the location scout in Tehran. I didn’t think this was big enough to carry the biggest moment of the movie. I felt like they needed to get into something more intense and scary. Walking into the heart of Tehran as a group of hated Americans posing as Canadians will no doubt make a great scene. But I don’t know. It seemed like it was missing something. Maybe they should actually have to shoot a test scene. Really put these characters who know nothing about filmmaking to the test. Or maybe the president of Iran (whose son is supposedly a huge Star Wars geek) invites the film crew to a prestigious dinner. Now you’re talking.

Still, this script is so different from anything I’ve ever read. It’s officially on my most anticipated list of next year. The only question left to ask is this: Is there indeed a script somewhere out there of Argo? Does some studio executive have this thing collecting dust in a box? If so, I absolutely have to read it. That would be hilarious to review. House that Death Built would have nothing on this. Please, if you know anything about this script, contact me. I have to have it!

[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[xx] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius

What I learned: Argo uses dual-column dialogue pretty liberally. However, I would recommend against it for your own screenplay. Sometimes you have to use it, but it’s rare I read a script that uses it for more than one line. I don’t know any readers who like the practice and the reason is we have to read one column then we have to trudge over and read a whole other column. It takes twice the time and doesn’t even achieve the desired effect. The effect is supposed to be two people talking at the same time. But if we’re reading the two columns separately, how does that sound like two people talking simultaneously? It’s just a clumsy device. I would avoid it.

 

[Crockett]

Scoot McNairy joins the cast.
http://www.showblitz.com/2011/08/argo-a-go-for-mcnairy.html

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

Kyle Chandler Joins 'Argo'

He has a small part in Ben Affleck's political thriller Argo, about the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.

Source

Even though it's just a small role, I think it's great that he is a part of this project.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

Principal Photography Begins on 'Argo'

Principal photography has begun on Warner Bros. Pictures' and GK Films' dramatic thriller "Argo," directed by and starring Academy Award(R) winner Ben Affleck ("The Town," "Good Will Hunting"). The film is being produced by Academy Award(R) winner George Clooney ("Syriana"), Oscar(R) nominee Grant Heslov ("Good Night, and Good Luck.") and Affleck.

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.

"Argo" also stars Oscar(R) winner Alan Arkin ("Little Miss Sunshine"), Bryan Cranston (TV's "Breaking Bad") and John Goodman ("You Don't Know Jack"). The main cast also includes Kerry Bishe, Kyle Chandler, Rory Cochrane, Christopher Denham, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Victor Garber, Zeljko Ivanek, Richard Kind, Scoot McNairy, Chris Messina, Michael Parks, and Taylor Schilling.

Affleck is directing the film from a screenplay by Chris Terrio, based on a selection from Master in Disguise by Antonio Mendez. David Klawans, Chris Brigham, Graham King, Tim Headington, Chay Carter and Nina Wolarsky are serving as executive producers.

The behind-the-scenes creative team includes Oscar(R)-nominated director of photography Rodrigo Prieto ("Brokeback Mountain"), production designer Sharon Seymour ("The Town"); Oscar(R)-nominated editor William Goldenberg ("Seabiscuit," "The Insider"); and Oscar(R)-nominated costume designer Jacqueline West ("The Social Network," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button").

Filming on "Argo" began in Los Angeles. Future locations include Washington D.C. and Istanbul.

Slated for release in 2012, "Argo" is a presentation of Warner Bros. Pictures, in association with GK Films, a Smoke House Pictures production, to be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Source

It's great that this movie started filming, and I was delighted to see that Rodrigo Prieto is the DP.

 

[Heisenberg]

Awesome, looking forward to some promotional stills, definitely high up there on the films I'm anticipating - I think Affleck is only at the beginning of what will be a very great directorial career.

 

[Crockett]

Affleck managed to round up a good crew as well, and we have a mini Damages reunion for this.

 

[HighFivingMF]

Parks is in!? **** yes.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

First On-Set Pics of Argo

Source

While the images doesn't reveal much, at least you can tell from the wardrobe that the movie is, obviously, set in the 70's.

 

[Ultra Lantern]

This looks real good.I'll go see it,when it comes to theaters.