In 1979 , 66 Americans were take hostage when the US embassy was attacked in Tehran , for 444 day . But six American diplomats debar capture , and were later smuggled out of the country thanks to a fake science fable movie called Argo and the help of fabled makeup artists John Chambers ( Star Trek , Planet of the Apes ) and Bob Sidell ( E.T. ) .
And now Ben Affleck ’s made a movie about it , also called Argo . Check out the trailer , and see how the CIA used Hollywood to pull off the “ Canadian Caper . ”
Argo centers around Tony Mendez ( Affleck ) , a camouflage expert and member of the CIA ’s Office of Technical Service ( he used to cable cats with hidden mics ! ) . John Goodman plays John Chambers . Also direct by Ben Affleck , this picture was inspire by the 2007 Wired article“How the CIA Used a Fake Sci - Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran”by Joshuah Bearman , which plots out the clandestine existence of Studio Six Productions ( named after the 6 Americans ) .
Here ’s a litte titbit from the article , but you should really justgo read it in its integrality . It ’s phenomenal :
To build his cover , Mendez put $ 10,000 into his briefcase and fly to Los Angeles . He address his protagonist John Chambers , the seasoned makeup creative person who had gain ground a 1969 Academy Award for Planet of the Apes and also bechance to be one of Mendez ’s longtime CIA collaborationist . sleeping accommodation brought in a peculiar effects fellow worker , Bob Sidell . They all meet in mid - January and Mendez briefed the duo on the situation and his scheme . Chambers and Sidell thought about the hostages they were seeing each night on television and quickly declare they were in … .
All they needed now was a film – and Chambers had the stark hand . month before , he had obtain a call from a would - be producer key Barry Geller . Geller had purchase the right field to Roger Zelazny ’s scientific discipline fabrication novel , Lord of Light , write his own discussion , raise a few million dollars in commence capital from wealthy investors , and rent Jack Kirby , the famous funny book artist who cocreated X - Men , to do conception drawing . Along the way , Geller imagine a Colorado melodic theme park establish on Kirby ’s placed designing that would be called Science Fiction Land ; it would include a 300 - pes - tall Ferris wheel , interpreter - operated mag - lev cars , a “ global control elbow room ” staff by robots , and a heated domed stadium almost doubly as marvellous as the Empire State Building . Geller had declare his grand plan in November at a pressure league attended by Jack Kirby , former football star and prospective cast appendage Rosey Grier , and several citizenry dressed like visitant from the future . Shortly thereafter , Geller ’s second - in - command was arrest for embezzling production funds , and the Lord of Light pic project vaporize .
Since Chambers had been lease by Geller to do makeup for the film , he still had the script and drawings at his house . The floor , a narrative of Hindu - inspired orphic science fiction , take place on a settled planet . Iran ’s landscape could provide many of the broken setting required by the script . A famous underground bazar in Tehran even couple one of the necessary locating . “ This is perfect , ” Mendez said . He remove the book binding and give the script a new name , Argo – like the vessel used by Jason on his dare ocean trip across the world to retrieve the Golden Fleece .
Argo make theaters on October 12th .
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