When I first saw the trailer for Ben Affleck’s new movie Argo, I thought, “Huh, they’re remaking that.”
Later, as Ben Affleck was getting more and more press and praise for this “original” film, I began wondering why no one was talking about it being a remake. I was positive I had seen the film, and remembered enjoying it quite a bit (the plot, at least).
Then when Wired magazine started taking credit for breaking the original story as if it was all theirs, I started getting really annoyed that I wasn’t hearing anything about Argo being a remake.
When I tried to research the original film, I found that it was incredibly difficult (well… at least by today’s standards) to find any information on the subject. Was I crazy? Had I imagined this entire film?!
Finally, however, I found some answers. Argo is a remake of the 1981 film “Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper” (brilliant title, no?).
Here’s an image from the original movie that I found via the webpage of some guy actually selling a homemade DVD of the made for television movie!
Here is the Wikipedia page highlighting the actual events upon which this film was based.
To the right is the actual (fake) movie poster created by the CIA for the fake movie Argo.
So… while I think the film is going to be fun, and I’m REALLY excited about the art direction and production design, I wish people would quit talking about it like Ben Affleck is the Lord Almighty reigning down from on high, and that wired is responsible for bringing the (admittedly very cool) story to light, especially since this is ABSOLUTELY a remake of a made for t.v. movie from 1981.
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