Stealth Comic Tie-In Move ‘Argo’ Sets Release Date For Next September
After over thirty years, we now have a release date for what could be the surprise comic-tie in movie hit for next year’s San Diego Comic-Con.
Warner Bros has set September 14, 2012 to send out its Ben Affleck-directed hostage drama Argo. Affleck stars alongside Alan Arkin, Bryan Cranston and John Goodman in the true story of a covert CIA operation to resuce six Americans trapped in Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis.
So what, you may ask, is the comic book connection in a real life story? No, it’s not Argo City…
In 1979 it was announced that Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light would be made into a film. Jack Kirby and Mike Royer were contracted to produce artwork for sets and costume design. Due to legal problems the project was never completed, but parts of the unmade film project, including the script and Kirby’s set designs, were used as a cover for a CIA exfiltration team for six US diplomatic staff trapped in Tehran in the Canadian embassy. The team had a version of the script, renamed to Argo; they pretended to be scouting a location in Iran for shooting a Hollywood film from that script.
Okay. I don’t remember hearing that.
But, a year or two later, a band called Big Daddy released their first album. They were a musically fairly-brilliant group, who performed 1970s and 80s songs in versions derived from 50s and 60s rock (Imagine “Ebony and Ivory” done as Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard might have performed. Or a Duane Eddy-meets-the-Ventures instrumental of the Star Wars theme.)
Anyway, the shtick was that they were a real 1950s band that had been captured by the Pathet Lao on a USO tour and been held prisoner for twenty years. The album cover was mocked up to look like a National Enquirer page, with the story.
What’s the relevance?
When word got out about the band being still there, the story went, the CIA contacted a famous director and borrowed monster costumes and equipment from a movie he was shooting in the area, and raided the camp…
Ah yes, Big Daddy… I\’ve heard of them, but haven\’t heard much of their stuff.