To coincide with the national release of the new Warner Bros. major motion picture ARGO – based on the covert CIA rescue mission by the same name – the International Spy Museum announced today that a signed copy of the original script of the movie will join the Museum’s permanent collection of Argo artifacts in its Covers and Legends gallery.
The film, opening Oct. 12, recounts the true story of the rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, as accounted by the man who orchestrated the hostages’ escape, Tony Mendez, former CIA technical operations officer and founding member of the International Spy Museum’s Board of Directors.
The mechanical, behind-the-lens aspects of film-making that make many of the scenes work and keep them true to life, are really a lot like our trade secrets in the CIA,” said Mendez on how ARGO remains true to the story on which it is based. “When I watched it, I kept reminding myself, ‘Oh right, that’s me.’ It really gave me goose bumps.”
Mendez spent his career with the CIA supporting clandestine and covert operations, solidifying himself as a master of disguise. Working in conjunction with the Government of Canada, Mendez accomplished the joint covert rescue mission – dubbed the “Canadian Caper”— by disguising the six hostages as a Canadian film crew shooting a fabricated movie titled “Argo.”
The script – signed by director and star of the film Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman and Alan Arkin – joins several artifacts from the real mission, including magazine advertisements, movie posters and business cards from the pseudo-production company, all created to validate the existence of a film that served solely as the cover story for an intricate extraction plan. The script will be installed in the permanent collection of Argo artifacts on October 10, 2012.
For more information on ARGO, visit www.argothemovie.com.
