On 11/04/2012 11:45 AM, turquoiseb wrote: > Excellent. Ben Affleck managed to direct a taut, well- > crafted movie that is also at times more funny than its > subject matter should have allowed it to be. After all, > it's about Americans stuck in Iran during the hostage > crisis, and the extraordinary lengths that the CIA and > Canadian officials took to free them. > > Affleck's film was based on, of all things, an article > in Wired: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2007/04/feat_cia/all/ > > It detailed the finally-declassified mission, which > involved setting up a fake film company shooting a fake > science fiction movie, and scouting Iran for locations. > This all happened, and strangely enough the events in > the film are remarkably like they really happened. It > was an *amazing* boondoggle, swinging for the fences at > the bottom of the ninth inning in the World Series, with > everything to lose, but much to win. And they somehow > managed to win. > > Fascinatingly enough, I read the article after watching > the movie, and discovered that the actual film script they > used for this CIA boondoggle was a story that has been > mentioned here recently and many times in the past. From > the article: > > In just four days, Mendez, Chambers, and Sidell created a > fake Hollywood production company. They designed business > cards and concocted identities for the six members of the > location-scouting party, including all their former credits. > The production company's offices would be set up in a suite > at Sunset Gower Studios on what was formerly the Columbia > lot, in a space vacated by Michael Douglas after he > finished The China Syndrome. > > All they needed now was a film — and Chambers had the > perfect script. Months before, he had received a call from > a would-be producer named Barry Geller. Geller had purchased > the rights to Roger Zelazny's science fiction novel, Lord of > Light, written his own treatment, raised a few million > dollars in starting capital from wealthy investors, and > hired Jack Kirby, the famous comic book artist who cocreated > X-Men, to do concept drawings. Along the way, Geller imagined > a Colorado theme park based on Kirby's set designs that would > be called Science Fiction Land; it would include a 300-foot- > tall Ferris wheel, voice-operated mag-lev cars, a "planetary > control room" staffed by robots, and a heated dome almost > twice as tall as the Empire State Building. Geller had > announced his grand plan in November at a press conference > attended by Jack Kirby, former football star and prospective > cast member Rosey Grier, and several people dressed like > visitors from the future. Shortly thereafter, Geller's > second-in-command was arrested for embezzling production > funds, and the Lord of Light film project evaporated. > > Since Chambers had been hired by Geller to do makeup for the > film, he still had the script and drawings at his house. The > story, a tale of Hindu-inspired mystical science fiction, > took place on a colonized planet. Iran's landscape could > provide many of the rugged settings required by the script. > A famous underground bazaar in Tehran even matched one of > the necessary locations. "This is perfect," Mendez said. > He removed the cover and gave the script a new name, Argo — > like the vessel used by Jason on his daring voyage across > the world to retrieve the Golden Fleece.
My review two weeks ago recommended leaving it for rental because it seemed to have the "Hollywood Bravado" I can't stand. I heard some reviewers say it didn't make any political statement but they must've been out getting popcorn when the opening ran and explained the CIA back coup that took the democratically elected President out of power for and replaced him with the Shah back in the 1950s. That of course at the behest of the oil cartel. On the CERN movie my enthusiasm over DSLR is because movies that look profession can now be done with inexpensive cameras, even sub $1000 ones. You need extra gear to outfit them but as the producer in the movie about a movie "Road to Nowhere" for the costs of renting a Red camera package they could buy two DSLRs and additional gear. Then they own the cameras and don't have to arrange another lease for pick up shots. And they have cameras for their next film. There is even a $3000 camera, the Black Magic, that has more F stops than the Red which will make it come close to 35mm film. This democratizes filmmaking and we are no longer constrained to what the studio lawyers deem wise for the studios to release. A schools have graduated many film students and also actors who can actually act so it is no longer "Jason and his friends make a movie." Some of these go direct to Netflix and other streaming rentals and delve into subjects that would definitely give studio counsels stomach ulcers. In other news Lucasfilm is being sold to Disney and I should be hearing the rush to the door over in Marin and Disney is a crappy company to work for (which Stu informed a few years back). ------------------------------------ To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: fairfieldlife-dig...@yahoogroups.com fairfieldlife-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: fairfieldlife-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
