Ben Affleck isn’t wasting any time recruiting solid acting talent for his latest, hostage rescue drama Argo. Hot on the heels of him nabbing Alan Arkin’s services for the film, he has now John Goodman in negotiations for a role.
The real-life tale has been adapted by writer Chris Terrio from a Wired magazine article originally penned by Joshuah Bearman. It tells of how the CIA and the Canadian government worked together to free six US diplomats who were taken prisoner at the American embassy in Iran in 1979.
In order to secure their release and sneak them out of the country, the Agency concocted fake identities for the officials, convincing the Iranians that they were a Hollywood film crew simply location scouting for a sci-fi movie called Argo. Part of the team involved in crafting the ruse were Arkin’s Lester Siegel, a spy-turned-Hollywood producer and John Chambers, the honorary Oscar-scooping make-up designer who worked on several Planet of the Apes movies. That’s the role Goodman will be snatching.
Affleck plans to begin shooting later this year. Goodman will next crop up in Kevin Smith’s **Red State **and is currently at work on Stephen Daldry’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.