Ben Affleck is quickly assembling a terrific cast for his CIA-Iran hostage thriller Argo. The latest to sign up for the film, according to Variety, is rising star Scoot McNairy who shot to prominence on the indie scene in 2010 with the terrific low budget sci-fi flick Monsters. McNeery joins Breaking Bad Emmy winner Bryan Cranston, Oscar winner Alan Arkin and John Goodman in this rapidly developing star studded cast.
Argo tells the breathtaking tale of the CIA rescue of six American Embassy workers who escaped from the American Embassy in Iran as it was overrun by militants in 1979. While the six hid out in foreign Embassy locations for several weeks one CIA agent launched a remarkable operation to save them.
Ben Affleck will direct Argo and take on the lead role of CIA Agent Tony Mendez who teams with friends in Hollywood to create one of the more elaborate CIA cover stories in history. Argo is based on a 2007 article from Wired that detailed Mendez’s work to create a fake movie called Argo that then became cover for the six trapped Americans who would pose as members of the movie production crew allegedly scouting locations in Iran.
No word on which role Scoot McNairy will take on in Argo. We do know that Alan Arkin and John Goodman will play Ben Affleck‘s Hollywood contacts who set up the fake studio, aquire an actual script and take out real ads in the Hollywood trade mags to help make Argo look legit. Bryan Cranston is playing Affleck’s CIA boss.
McNairy may be one of the six hostages who have yet to be cast. The Wired story has four men and two women among the hostages. We will no doubt get more casting news on Argo soon, the film is set to be in production before the year is out with a 2012 release date. With the success of Ben Affleck‘s previous directorial efforts, Gone Baby Gone and The Town, expectations for Argo are high and I don’t think Ben will let us down.
