Ben Affleck Negotiating To Direct Unusual Thriller ‘Argo’ For Producer George Clooney
Suddenly, there’s a chance thatBen Affleckmight followGeorge Clooneyinto the world of the ‘too weird to be true’ political thriller. Mr. Affleck has been looking at options for his third directorial project, followingThe TownandGone Baby Gone, but none have been locked down yet. Now it looks like he might work with producers George Clooney andGrant Heslov(The Men Who Stare at Goats) to adapt aWired articlecalled “How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran.”
THRhas the news, saying that Ben Affleck is in active negotiations to directArgobased on the script byChris Terrio, adapting the original 2007 article byJoshuah Bearman. What’s the story about? Here’s what the author toldBoingBoingwhen the original piece was published:
It’s crazier than that, though. This was in 1979, so this would be a period piece, for one. And Jack Kirby and classic sci-fi author Roger Zelazny factor in, too. (Check the excerpt below to find out how.) As far as the actual operation goes, one of the core participants was Antonio Mendez,a low-key spy and so-called ‘master of disguise.’ He has since been profiled by Errol Morris in his seriesFirst Person, in the episode called ‘The Little Gray Man.’ One of his friends and collaborators was Oscar-winning makeup guy (forPlanet of the Apes!) John Chambers, and he’s part of this story, too.
I love this idea. I love Ben Affleck moving out of his Boston comfort zone, I love him working with Clooney and Heslov, and I love the idea of him taking a step or two out of serious thriller territory and into something a little more weird. I’m not a big fan ofThe Men Who Stare at Goats, but I think that the Clooney/Heslov team is likely self-aware enough to realize that they hit a couple pitfalls there that could be avoided this time.
Here’s a bit of the original article that suggests how odd the setup for this whole thing really is:
All they needed now was a film — and Chambers had the perfect script. Months before, he had received a call from a would-be producer named Barry Geller. Geller had purchased the rights to Roger Zelazny’s science fiction novel, Lord of Light, written his own treatment, raised a few million dollars in starting capital from wealthy investors, and hired Jack Kirby, the famous comic book artist who cocreated X-Men, to do concept drawings. Along the way, Geller imagined a Colorado theme park based on Kirby’s set designs that would be called Science Fiction Land; it would include a 300-foot-tall Ferris wheel, voice-operated mag-lev cars, a “planetary control room” staffed by robots, and a heated dome almost twice as tall as the Empire State Building. Geller had announced his grand plan in November at a press conference attended by Jack Kirby, former football star and prospective cast member Rosey Grier, and several people dressed like visitors from the future. Shortly thereafter, Geller’s second-in-command was arrested for embezzling production funds, and the Lord of Light film project evaporated.
Since Chambers had been hired by Geller to do makeup for the film, he still had the script and drawings at his house. The story, a tale of Hindu-inspired mystical science fiction, took place on a colonized planet. Iran’s landscape could provide many of the rugged settings required by the script. A famous underground bazaar in Tehran even matched one of the necessary locations. “This is perfect,” Mendez said. He removed the cover and gave the script a new name, Argo — like the vessel used by Jason on his daring voyage across the world to retrieve the Golden Fleece.
