George Clooney’s production company is reportedly working on a new film project based on the true story of a CIA agent who smuggled six Americans out of Iran, while dozens were being held hostage there. Expected to direct and star in the film, it is another CIA-based outing to the Middle East for Clooney, following 2005’s critically acclaimed Syriana. Escape From Tehran has been dubbed a ‘dramedy’ – a cross between comedy and drama – and will document an elaborate rescue operation staged by the CIA in 1979. Agent Antonio Mendez pitched and carried off a plan that the team should pose as movie studio employees in a bid to infiltrate the mob-infested US embassy in Tehran. The plan saw fake identity expert Mendez successfully assume the role of an Irish movie producer scouting for locations for a science fiction movie called Argo. Details of the ruse only emerged in 1997, when the now retired agent was asked to talk openly about it to mark the CIA’s 50th anniversary. A spokesman for Smoke House productions said that although Escape From Tehran is in development, it has not been approved for production.