'Argo's' Odd Hollywood History

6:00 AM PDT 9/25/2012 by Bill Higgins, Borys Kit

A kooky sci-fi script, the CIA and ads in The Hollywood Reporter: The real story behind Ben Affleck’s new thriller is too strange to have been invented.

The Hollywood Reporter was full of ads promoting that year's Oscar hopefuls -- everything from eventual winners like Kramer vs. Kramer to crazy long shots like George Hamilton courting consideration as best actor for his campy turn in the vampire comedy Love at First Bite. Amid all the hoopla, it was probably easy to overlook one, relatively unassuming, full-page, black-and-white display ad announcing a new movie called Argo, described only as "A Cosmic Conflagration … commencing principal photography, March 1980."