I know it’s very early days yet, but I have a feeling that Ben Affleck’s Argo could well be my film of the year. His directorial debut and follow-up in Gone Baby Gone and The Town were beyond impressive, and I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us third time around.
If you’ve been following the project’s progress, you’ll already know that it boasts a very impressive cast, headed up by Affleck himself, including Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Scoot McNairy, Kyle Chandler, Alan Arkin, Michael Parks, Titus Welliver, Rory Cochrane, Taylor Schilling, Clea DuVall, Kerry Bishé, Christopher Denham, and Tate Donovan.
We got our first image from the film just after Christmas last year, giving us the chance to see Affleck in character in the 1979-/1980-set film, sporting a rather brilliant beard. In that image was also a photo of Scoot McNairy, rocking a supremely awesome moustache.
We’ve now got a fantastic new image to share with you, courtesy of ComingSoon.net via The Playlist, which looks to be taken from a little while into the film, with Affleck drilling his companions on their aliases.
“Based on true events, “Argo” chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis–the truth of which was unknown by the public for decades. On November 4, 1979, as the Iranian revolution reaches its boiling point, militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. But, in the midst of the chaos, six Americans manage to slip away and find refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador. Knowing it is only a matter of time before the six are found out and likely killed, a CIA “exfiltration” specialist named Tony Mendez (Affleck) comes up with a risky plan to get them safely out of the country. A plan so incredible, it could only happen in the movies.”
Doing a little bit of detective work, by reading the fascinating original article that the film is based on (which you can, and should, read here), here’s the run-down of who we can see in the new image:
Ben Affleck is of course front and centre, standing up in the middle. McNairy, playing Joe Stafford, is sat in the chair on the left. Kerry Bishé, playing his wife Kathy, is on the chair on the right. Clea DuVall, playing Cora Lijek, is on the chair on the left (though has the back of her head to the shot), with her husband’s character, Mark (Christopher Denham), in the middle of the sofa on the right. Beside him is Tate Donovan, playing Robert Anders, on the bottom of the sofa, and on the other side is Rory Cochrane, playing Lee Schatz.
Now, technically, some of these are guesses – DuVall’s back of the head, for example. But, it should be noted, the scene is clearly one in which Affleck is running them through their aliases, and so we can assume that these six characters are the six people he’s rescuing from Tehran. So adding two and two together, those are my guesses. The hair/make-up and costumes look so impressive on this film to disguise pretty much everyone out of recognition, but I’d say that it’s at least an educated guess.
Chris Terrio has adapted the original Wired magazine article, How the CIA Used A Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran, for the film, for what looks like a very promising feature debut from the screenwriter.
Argo will be with us on 5th October this year, so we’ve got just over nine months to wait for its release. Again, very early days yet, but I’m really hoping that the film will take Affleck’s film to the Oscars this time next year, just like Gone Baby Gone and The Town did. As usual with this new image, click to enlarge.
