Michael Moore says he wants to visit Iran, with or without an invitation

Michael Moore speaks to a crowd in Madison, Wis. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

This post has been updated

TEHRAN – Mehr News quotes the controversial American filmmaker as telling another Iranian outlet that he would visit the country, even without an official invitation:

Moore in his latest interview with Mehrnameh magazine said “when the news of my visit to Iran was published a few years ago, the right-wing media in the US began to take a position and published some very critical and hateful articles, they even published faked news about me. So I thought I should postpone visiting Iran to another time."

Michael Moore continued “they explained to me that my style has many advocates in Iran. So obviously I was happy. I am now waiting for an opportunity to travel to Iran. Even if they do not invite me this time I will go anyway.”

Apparently, no one told Mehr News (or Michael Moore, for that matter) that as an American you can't just show up in Iran uninvited. The country maintains a very defined process to get a visa to visit, with clear limitations and extra hoops for Americans to jump through.

Either Moore isn't aware of the rules or thinks they don't apply to him. Every American I've ever met here, though, had to go through the paper-heavy visa process.

Update: BuzzFeed asked Moore about the Mehr News item. "Someone is playing a prank," he told BuzzFeed. "Are you serious? Really?" We've reached out to him for further comment.

Update, Feb. 19: Moore, in response to an email from the Washington Post, wrote "You printed something that wasn't true" but did not answer questions about which aspects of the original Mehr report were false.