TEHRAN -- Screenwriter Farhad Tohidi plans to see “Argo”, a Hollywood drama about the 1980 joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran, to complete his research for writing “The Broken Paw”, a TV series about the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979.
“Due to the subject of the TV series, we should see the film,” he told the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency on Saturday.
“The premiere of ‘Argo’ in Iran may persuade the cultural officials to hasten production of the TV series,” he added.
Tohidi said that writing the screenplay will last until next autumn and immediately afterwards shooting will begin.
Shooting of “The Broken Paw” will be set in Iran, Egypt, Panama and the United States, he stated.
No details were mentioned about the producer or director of the TV series project.
Directed by Ben Affleck, “Argo” tells the story of six American diplomatic personnel who manage to escape to the official residence of the Canadian Ambassador after the American embassy in Tehran was occupied by Iranian revolutionaries in 1979. In 1980, a joint CIA-Canadian secret operation is organized to infiltrate Iran and extract the six Americans out of revolutionary Iran.
Some Iranian cultural officials viewed “Argo” as an “anti-Iranian” film after it has begun premiere in the U.S. since October 12.
In addition, a number of semi-official Persian news agencies filed reports claiming the film has been unsuccessful at the box office.
Iranian director Mohammad Shirvani had previously made “444 Days”, a documentary focusing on U.S. diplomats John W. Limbert and Lowell Bruce Laingen, who were detained at the embassy, dubbed the ‘den of spies’ by Imam Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.
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