reportedly in Tehran advising authorities on how to file suit.
The Iranian government is planning to sue Hollywood over Oscar-winning Argo, because they say the film is an "unrealistic portrayal" of their country, state media reports TAccording to an Associated Press report, several Iranian news outlets, including the more liberal leaning Shargh Daily, said on Tuesday that French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre is in the country discussing with officials how they might go about filing the lawsuit.
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Iran won’t be joining the most auspicious company by becoming a Coutant-Peyre client: she is best known as the lawyer for infamous Venezuelan terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, aka Carlos the Jackal -- another former subject of Hollywood (The Jackal, 1997, directed by Michael Caton-Jones).
The AP says the government’s decision to litigate comes after a group of Iranian cultural officials and movie critics screened the film for a closed audience at a Tehran theater late Monday.
After Argo won best picture at the 2013 Oscars in February, hard-line Iranian state media was flooded with criticism – taking particular umbrage over the fact that First Lady Michelle Obama presented the award.
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"In a rare occasion in Oscar history, the first lady announced the winner for Best Picture for the anti-Iran film Argo, which is produced by the Zionist company Warner Bros," Fars News said at the time.
In January, sources reported that the Iranian government is now mounting its own film version of the events surrounding the rescue of American diplomats during the 1979 hostage crisis, which it plans to call The General Staff. The project is said to be getting a generous budget by Iranian standards from the Art Bureau of the Iranian government. Ataollah Salmanian, described as a minor figure in the Iranian industry, wrote the screenplay and is attached to direct.
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