By Ryan Parsons | Image property of respective holders, Variety.
George Clooney
George Clooney plans to return to the pen with Smoke House partner Grant Heslov. Further fueling his fascination with the CIA, the duo will co-write a dramedy for Warner Bros. Pictures detailing how the CIA, with help from Hollywood, used a fake movie project to smuggle a handful of Americans out of Tehran during the 1979 hostage crisis.
Clooney Writes Escape from Tehran
Warners purchased the rights to the story after it was printed in Wired magazine by Joshuah Berman.
Project reunites Clooney and Heslov. The last project they penned together was 2005's Good Night and Good Luck.
As with any Smoke House project, Escape from Tehran is a potential directing and starring vehicle for Clooney.
Berman's article in the current issue of Wired centers around CIA operative Tony Mendez, a master of disguise who was put in charge of rescuing six Americans hiding out in Tehran. He came up with the idea of using a bogus movie and contacted Hollywood makeup artist John Chambers
Chambers and Bob Sidell, also a makeup artist, launched Studio Six Prods. (an allusion to the six Americans awaiting rescue) and announced their first movie project, to be shot in Iran. Both Variety and the Hollywood Reporter were duped into writing news stories on the film after Studio Six took out trade ads.
But how did the CIA find their in? They told the Iranians that they were also Canadian.
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