World

March 14, 2007

Tyler MacNiven's Persian Diversion

The former Amazing Race star tried to make a movie about running across Iran, and instead was run out of the country.

Hadley Robinson

Tyler MacNiven became a minor celebrity last spring as a star in CBS's reality TV show, The Amazing Race. Termed "the hippies," MacNiven and his partner B.J. Averell went from underdogs to overachievers, winning the race, the million-dollar prize, and a cult following. With the money, MacNiven sought to do what he's always wanted to do: make movies. After toying with several ideas, he decided that he and his Iranian-American friend, Bobak Bakhtiari, would run the length of Iran promoting friendship and understanding. The name of the upcoming movie, of course: I ran Iran.

Hadley Robinson







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Comments

- World
- posted on Mar 18, 07
Sarah

This articles was fascinating. There are so many things going on in this world that I don't know about- it was a pleasure to read about one of them at Gelf. Keep up the fantastic work!

- World
- posted on Mar 18, 07
Brian

Good Read. Tyler's nuts. I love it.

- World
- posted on Apr 04, 07
Franco Fuentes

Sad... it was a great idea, but sometimes people cares about other things than live in peace.

- World
- posted on Jun 05, 07
Sherry

You and Bakhtiari are brave. So sad you didn't have a chance to finish your run to show the world Iranians are good people and like Americans.
Let's petiton a Iranian group to join your running club and finish it here.I will run with you.

- World
- posted on May 08, 08
Patrick Jackson

I teach in Japan and show my students the Kintaro video every year. They really enjoy it and I think he has done a great thing and something not easy as so much commentary on Japan is really cliche-ridden. Funny though, and goes to show what a prankster this guy is; the news presenter didn't actually say "He must have huge balls to walk that far." They just put that in the subtitles!

Having hitched across Iran in 1986 as an Irishman I received nothing but warm welcomes. Ireland at that time was seen as a friend of Iran due to a. The massive amount of Irish beef that was being bought by Iran and b. The portrayal of the Irish as anti-imperialist and the IRA as big heroes. I even stayed with a family whose son was named after hunger-striker Bobby Sands. They were at war with Iraq then. Is it really necessary for people to suffer so much?

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