February 07-2014
. . . won’t be sued
The Rohani Administration has dropped a lawsuit the Ahmadi-nejad Administration planned to file against the director of the movie “Argo,” Ben Affleck, but an Iranian film intended to tell the real story about the hostage episode continues in production.
“Argo” generated much hostility in the Iranian community, where it was widely seen as anti-Iranian, particularly for scenes showing Iranians as angry and violent toward Americans.
One year ago, officials of the Iran Cinema Organization who had been appointed by the Ahmadi-nejad Administration hired Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, a French lawyer who is engaged to Ilich RamÌrez Sanchez, the jailed international terrorist better known as “Carlos the Jackal.” She appeared at a news conference in Tehran after Affleck won an Oscar for “Argo” and said she would file a suit against him for promoting Iranophobia.
But the new chief of the organization named by the Rohani Administration has now said there is no formal contract with Coutant-Peyre and the organization will not pursue any lawsuit.
But that doesn’t mean Iran is accepting of “Argo.” Iranian producer Jamal Sadatian said his film project on the seizure of the US embassy in 1979 continues and will be “a blockbuster.”
“Sixty-six foreign actors – as many as the US hostages held in Iran – will be hired for the project,” he told a press conference last Wednesday.
He said the project would be produced “independently by the private sector.”
Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, who was among the students who seized the embassy, is acting as a consultant on the project.
Asgharzadeh said the film would be “a logical review of contemporary history…. The film will also examine the mistakes of the students, of which I was one.”
Sadatian said, “In the moderate atmosphere now dominating Iran’s foreign relations, I hope this film will help public opinion in Iran and the world to be enlightened about this event.”