Actor-director Ben Affleck has cast himself as the lead character in Argo, which he is directing for Warner Bros. and Smoke House Productions.

Ben Affleck will play Tony Mendez, a CIA agent who hatched a plan to rescue six American hostages in Iran by creating a fake Hollywood production company. The ploy involved telling the Iranian hostage-takers that the six American diplomats were actually part of a Hollywood film crew, who were scouting locations in Iran for a movie called Argo. The hostages were able to flee the country using those phony identities.

Chris Terrio is adapting the screenplay from a 2007 Wired Magazine article written by Joshuah Bearman. Alan Arkin has already been cast as Hollywood producer Lester Siegel, with John Goodman portraying Oscar-winning special effects artist John Chambers.

George Clooney and Grant Heslov are producing Argo through their Smoke House Productions banner, along with David Klawans. No production schedule has been given for Argo yet.