George Clooney's Next is The Monuments Men

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=85763

Source: 24 Frames
January 9, 2012

George Clooney, who can currently be seen in award-nominated The Descendants, will next direct and co-star in The Monuments Men, an adaptation of the 2009 book by Robert Edsel. Clooney and Grant Helsov will produce for Sony Pictures. The book is officially described as follows:

At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised.

In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Momuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture.

Focusing on the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six Monuments Men and their impossible mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis.

“It’s an amazing story, and Grant and I are already thinking about how great the casting can be," Clooney told 24 Frames. "And there’s also a great love story.”

Heslov and Clooney teamed up in 2011 for The Ides of March, which Clooney directed, co-wrote and co-starred in.

Sounds like a great story.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Matt Damon Eyes George Clooney's The Monuments Men

 

[Octoberist]

Can't wait.

 

[dude stannis]

Oh god, George Clooney and Daniel Craig in the same film. I'm sure I'll be completely emasculated if I go see this with a ladyfriend.

But even as a heterosexual, Clooney and Craig

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=101122

Source: Columbia Pictures
March 5, 2013

Columbia Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox announced today that The Monuments Men, a Smokehouse production directed by and starring George Clooney, has started production in Berlin, Germany. The action-thriller is written by Clooney & Grant Heslov, based on the book by Robert M. Edsel with Bret Witter. Clooney and Heslov also produce the film through their Smokehouse Productions. It is their first production since winning the Academy Award® for Best Picture for their work on Argo. Barbara A. Hall is executive producer. The Monuments Men is a co-production with Germany’s Siebente Babelsberg Film GmbH, a subsidiary of Studio Babelsberg AG. Charlie Woebcken, Christoph Fisser and Henning Molfenter serve as co-producers. Sony Pictures will release the film domestically, with Twentieth Century Fox handling international territories.

The all-star cast includes Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville, and John Goodman.

Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men focuses on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys – seven museum directors, curators, and art historians, all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1 – possibly hope to succeed? But as the Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind’s greatest achievements.

Clooney’s crew on The Monuments Men includes director of photography Phedon Papamichael, ASC, Oscar®-nominated production designer Jim Bissell, Academy Award®-winning editor Stephen Mirrione, A.C.E., costume designer Louise Frogley, and five-time Oscar® nominated composer Alexandre Desplat.

The Monuments Men continues filming in Germany and the United Kingdom through the end of June. It is scheduled for domestic release on December 18, 2013.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

 

[Pink Ranger]

Lol, they really went all out for Oscar bait didn't they?

- World War 2/Nazi themed plot
- Large ensemble cast
- John Goodman

 

[Boom]

Goodman's been in Oscar-nominated film after Oscar-nominated film, and the poor guy still can't score himself a nod.

 

[Hunter Rider]

George Clooney and Matt Damon on The Monuments Men Set

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

this sounds interesting

love the cast

 

[kvz5]

Damon

 

[terry78]

Damon seriously looks like a military dude in the picture. Not an actor just wearing a random army suit.

 

[Kane52630]

Definitely Oscar bait. I love George Clooney as a director so sign me up!

 

[Duke]

I usually like any movie Damon is in, so I'm looking forward to this one too.

 

[Rocketman]

Ugh, I don't know. It seems like these movies are made for one reason and one reason only:

Spoiler

It's just so painfully obvious - it sucks me right out of the experience of sitting down and enjoying the movie as a movie. All I'm thinking about in the theater, during every camera angle, every tear coming down the cheek of Kate Winslet, every crazy voice coming out of Daniel Day-Lewis' mouth, I just see golden statues spinning around in my head. The story is instantly lost for me.

For me, it started with The Reader. That's the first time I really got irritated and just couldn't like the movie as a movie. And now I'm feeling that eerie feeling again with Anne Hathaway winning her Oscar.

I guess, in summary, it never feels like the 4th quarter films have a story to tell because they want to tell a story - but rather because there's an agenda to get a standing ovation. No thanks to this.

And Bill Murray being in this movie is your instant red flag. That man will kill for a statue.

 

[Visceral]

fart

 

[Pink Ranger]

fart

 

[kvz5]

 

[Hunter Rider]

Gotta hand it to Clooney, the man is a chameleon when he takes a role.

 

[kvz5]

 

[Hunter Rider]

I know it's just a pic but I get good vibes, I think this should be fun.

 

[terry78]

Wasn't Clooney going to do a gritty reboot of Hogan's Heroes at some point?

 

[James.B]

Trailer:
[YT]CreneTs7sGs[/YT]
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2013/08/07/monument-men-first-look/2610789/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomMovies-TopStories+%28Life+-+Movies+-+Top+Stories%29

Despite the Nazi backdrop, Clooney says, the film is an adventure and a change in tempo for the team, which produced last year's best-picture Oscar winner, Argo.

"Grant and I were looking to do a film that was less cynical than a lot of the films we do," says Clooney, who plays Lt. Commander George Stout, one of the nation's first art conservationists.

"Grant had read the book at the airport," Clooney says. "He gave it to me. We went into Sony and pitched it and got greenlit right there. The story was just so compelling."

Clooney says the film offered something rare in the canon of World War II films: an untold story.

 

[dark_b]

10/10 based on the trailer.

 

[nite-owl]

Reminds me of the Simpsons with the Flying Hellfish.