David Klawans is an executive producer on Argo but it may be better to say he's a "story detective." Early on he decided his niche would be finding true stories and turning them into movies. He discovered the story for Argo in late-1998, early-1999, buried in a CIA quarterly journal, "Studies in Intelligence." For years he strived to bring this story to the screen, finally achieving success when he teamed up with reporter Joshuah Bearman to write it up as an article in a 2007 Wired magazine. Klawans' other big feature credit is on the Jack Black movie, Nacho Libre. That too is based on a true story. The lengths he went to in order to get the rights to both the stories of Argo and Nacho Libre demonstrate Klawans' dogged approach to producing.
David Klawans and Jack Black on the set of Nacho Libre
David Klawans in the library
David Klawans and Tony Mendez,
the ex-CIA operative in the Argo story at the premiere for Argo