Ben Affleck has begun casting for his upcoming directorial effort, the Tehran hostage thriller ‘Argo,’ and the first actor hired was Alan Arkin, ComingSoon is reporting. The Academy Award-winning actor will play an O.S.S. veteran and Hollywood producer Lester Siegel, who is also being described as a bookie and rabbi.

‘Argo,’ which was written by Chris Terrio, will follow the CIA as it teams up with the Canadian government to save six U.S. diplomats. They have been taken hostage by a group of Iranians in 1979 at the American embassy. The kidnappers pretended to be a film crew scouting for an upcoming Hollywood film called ‘Argo.’

The film is being adapted from an April 2007 Wired article by Joshua Bearman titled “How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue American from Tehran.” ‘Argo’ is being produced by George Clooney and is being released by Warner Bros.

Written by: Karen Benardello