Ben Affleck‘s third effort behind the camera after the critically adored combination of “Gone Baby Gone” and “The Town” probably doesn’t need more hype heaped on it but with a cast featuring Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Scoot McNairy, Kyle Chandler and Affleck himself, in a story based on fascinating Wired article “How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran,” it’s hard not to get excited.
Now, with production surely beginning very soon, Affleck has topped off his cast with the addition of Taylor Schilling (“The Lucky One“), Tate Donovan — whose involvement is surely connected to the fact he featured in “Good Night And Good Luck,” the brainchild of “Argo” producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov — as well as newcomer Nelson Franklin (Comeau in “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World“).
The story centers on the real-life C.I.A. plan to rescue a group of diplomats from Tehran after the 1979 Iranian revolution by claiming that they were part of a Hollywood movie crew shooting a film, with Schilling set to play Christine Mendez, the wife of Affleck and a former teacher who worries about her husband’s dangerous mission, Donovan as Bob Anders, a U.S. embassy consular officer in Tehran, and Franklin playing a reporter.
The trio join Cranston who plays Affleck’s C.I.A. boss; Goodman as an Oscar-winning make-up artist; Arkin as an O.S.S. spy-turned-movie producer with McNairy and Chandler rounding things out. Surely this will be primed for a fall 2012 release? We can’t wait.