Ben Affleck

Up until the 1990s, the CIA was happy to remain in the shadows, unconcerned with how it was, or wasn’t portrayed in movies. But that’s no longer true. Today, the CIA contributes and advises on certain films, in order to put its best foot forward — and attract the best and brightest new hires.

From The Dark Knight to the Great Gatsby, 2012 is set to have some blockbusters on the big screen. You’ll want to mark these six flicks down as must-see movies.

Latinos in and out of Hollywood have questioned whether Affleck, a dyed-in-the-wool WASP, should have played Mendez, who is Mexican-American on his father’s side.

“Zero Dark Thirty” has garnered a lot of attention for the help the filmmakers received from the CIA. But the World’s Arun Rath reports that the CIA has been trying to influence Hollywood for decades.

Iranian singer Sussan Deyhim contributed music to the new film “Argo.” The film is set in Tehran during the US Embassy hostage crisis that followed the Iranian revolution. This is a time period that resonates with her even though she had left Iran.