Ben Affleck had a lot of critical and commercial success with his last film, The Town which he directed and starred in. According to Variety he’s about to direct and star in another film based on the real-life story of a late 70s Iran hostage crisis with a twist. Through an elaborate ruse the CIA convinced the government of Iran that the US diplomats they’d captured were film production workers scouting out a location for a fake movie they’d invented. It sounds brilliant actually, and full of potential. With Affleck in charge it could be quite good. The film is being put out by Warner Brothers, and George Clooney will be one of the production partners. John Goodman (love him) and Alan Arkin are in talks to co-star. Hopefully they’ll add another hot young actor besides Affleck for eye candy.

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.

Alan Arkin and John Goodman are in final negotiations to co-star in Warner Bros.’ Tehran hostage crisis pic as Hollywood producer Lester Siegel and Oscar-winning makeup artist John Chambers, respectively.

George Clooney and Grant Heslov are producing the political drama through their Smokehouse banner along with David Klawans (“Nacho Libre”).

Chris Terrio adapted Joshuah Bearman’s April 2007 Wired magazine article, titled “How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue American from Tehran,” which told how the CIA and the Canadian government teamed to rescue six U.S. diplomats who’d been taken hostage at the American embassy by a group of Iranians in 1979. The CIA’s ruse involved the explanation that the six hostages were actually a Hollywood film crew scouting a movie titled “Argo,” and using those fake identities, they were able to flee the country.

[From Variety via Huffington Post]

The Town was a great movie, but I get the critics who say that Affleck isn’t the strongest actor. He’s not, but he’s a very promising director. He also plays certain parts very well, and this type of CIA operative posing as a Hollywood wheeler dealer could be perfect for him. He’s got charisma and there’s a kind of superficiality about him that makes him seem slippery. I like Ben, he’s just not an Oscar level actor. He’s played his career well though over the past few years. It probably wasn’t easy to go from a punchline to an acclaimed director, although having millions of dollars in the bank surely made it possible – and tolerable.

Photos courtesy of WENN.