Affleck Casts Alan Arkin for Argo

Ben Affleck has started the casting process for his Tehran hostage thriller Argo and the first name out of the hat is Oscar-winning actor Alan Arkin ( Little Miss Sunshine ) who will play Hollywood producer Lester Siegel, an O.S.S. veteran described as equal parts bookie and rabbi, according to Variety .

The film is about how the CIA teamed with the Canadian government to rescue six U.S. dipomats who’d been taken hostage at the American embassy by a group of Iranians in 1979 by pretending that they were part of a Hollywood film crew scouting a movie called “Argo.”

The screenplay was adapted by Chris Terrio from Joshua Bearman’s April 2007 Wired magazine article, “How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue American from Tehran” and it’s being produced by…