Iran is suing the crap out of Hollywood

Warner Brothers

This should be pretty funny if it ever comes to court. It’s hard to take some of the world’s countries that are our self-professed enemies seriously. I mean look at these guys! We’ve heard plenty lately about North Korea’s ridiculousness, and it looks like our little buddies in Iran are getting a little jealous, because they’ve just launched a campaign to bring down our movie industry as we know it.

After Ben Affleck’s Argo won an Academy Award, the smell of money was in the air. The film, which deals with the 1979 hostage crisis that marked the end of diplomatic relations between the United States and Iran, didn’t really go over so well in the Middle Eastern nation. French lawyer Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, who was previously most famous for defending international terrorist Carlos the Jackal, has announced that she will be representing Iran in a legal case against a number of film studios for “distorting the country’s image,” according to Deadline.

When this was first announced, the only defendant was going to be Warner Brothers for Argo, but now it’s looking like Iran is taking on the entire industry. They’ve announced a few other films that they consider insulting to the country, including Sally Field hostage drama Not Without My Daughter and… The Wrestler, presumably for the character of “The Ayatollah.” But it’s Argo that’s bearing the brunt of their attack, with official culture ministers claiming that the flick is pro-CIA propaganda.

It’s doubtful that this suit will ever make it to trial, especially not in the United States where it would be thrown out of court in a heartbeat. The only hope Iran would have is to try the case in a country where the films were officially distributed that has regressive free speech laws. Good luck finding one of those.

A little ironic footnote? Although Argo is banned in Iran, it’s available bootlegged and it’s the best-selling movie in the country by a wide margin.