For all those who love saying Ben Affleck finally found his true calling in directing, it would appear the thespian believes he has found what is merely his second calling. It was thought to be the case and is now a certainty: the actor/writer/director will star in the George Clooney-produced Argo, a film which tells of the CIA’s operation to rescue six U.S. diplomats trapped in their Iranian embassy in 1979 by disguising as a film crew scouting locations in the area. The name of the fictional film the spies were “scouting” for was Argo.
Affleck will play Tony Mendez, the CIA spy who runs the show. And for those rolling their eyes at the news, let us not forget that while the man was proving himself a director, he was also going through a bit of an acting overhaul, proving himself in films ranging from melodrama (Hollywoodland), to comedy (Extract), to, well, melodrama (The Company Men).
Character actor John Goodman was recently cast as make-up artist John Chambers (the man behind those apes in Planet of the Apes), who was utilized by the spies to convince suspicious locals that the film crew was in fact a film crew. Alan Arkin was the first cast in the film, as Lester Siegel, a O.S.S. spy-cum-film producer. No, seriously, he produces movies for real now.
The young filmmaker made a splash with his indie Gone, Baby, Gone in 2007 and crashed a tidal wave with The Town last year, a genre heist film that played nearly all of the right notes. And where his first film played super-serious, his follow-up had a lot more fun. A film with a fake film subplot and a action-friendly narrative seems like the next natural step. And with this so-far solid veteran cast, he seems to be getting what he wants.
What do think of Affleck as a director? Actor?