George Clooney to Direct, Star In 'Monuments Men' About Stolen Nazi Art (Exclusive)

EXCLUSIVE


George Clooney has started to work on his next project, writing, directing and starring in a big-budget movie about the men who chased down the stolen art of Europe during World War Two, he told TheWrap on Saturday.

“The Monuments Men,” which Clooney is co-writing with his producing partner Grant Heslov, will tell the story of a hand-picked group of art experts chosen by the U.S. government to retrieve artwork stolen by the Nazis.

“I’m excited about it,” Clooney told TheWrap at the Palm Springs Film Festival on Saturday. “It’s a fun move because it could be big entertainment. It’s a big budget, you can’t do it small -- it’s landing in Normandy.”

The movie will be based on the book “The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History,” by Robert M. Edsel.


Clooney said he will co-write, direct and star in the movie, which has been set up at Sony. It will have several meaty roles for actors, though Clooney said it was too early to think about who might fill those roles.

“Grant and I have been trying to find a project,” Clooney said.

“I’m not opposed to doing a commercial film, I’m just opposed to doing a commercial film that doesn’t feel organic to me. So if we’re going to do a commercial film we thought, 'Let’s do something that seems fun and actually have something to say.'”

“Monuments” is an intrigue-filled tale of art theft and espionage in Europe during World War Two. (Photo of U.S. soldiers retrieving artwork in Austria in 1945, Getty Images.) Hitler systematically emptied the museums and private collections of Europe during World War Two.

The book tells the tale of a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians – called the Monuments Men – who risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of this culture.


The book specifically follows the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day. The group worked behind enemy lines and were often unarmed.

Clooney and Heslov often make movies about political or socially-oriented subjects. Last year they made “Ides of March” together, about a corrupt political campaign, and they also co-produced “Good Night and Good Luck,” an examination of the limits of freedom of the press, as well as the Middle East war caper, “The Men Who Stare at Goats.”

Clooney was in Palm Springs to be honored at a festival gala.

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Thanks for posting that 007.
Fabulous news !! A big one to look forward to

Wow, that's a lot of films in the pipeline! At the moment he has:

Gravity
Argo
The Monster of Florence
Our Brand is Crisis
The Smothers Brothers
White Jazz

when this new film?

his surgery?



didn't he tell, in an Italian magazine interview, he wants to take some time for his busines?

(Kat, all those films? are sure??)

and all look great!! white jazz?? in which he will play the bad cop?? didn't they leave that project or something?? if it happen then man, am sooo thrilled!!! i want him to play a bad guy so badly!!

I'm not really into historical type films, but this one sounds good!

it's me wrote:(Kat, all those films? are sure??)

Nope! Nobody except George Clooney knows for sure which films he is going to go ahead with and which films aren't ever going to make it.

I'm only listing the ones that George seems to be involved with at the moment - there are more in this part of the forum that only vaguely have George ties, mostly in a producer role.

Quote...“Monuments” is an intrigue-filled tale of art theft and espionage in Europe during World War Two. (Photo of U.S. soldiers retrieving artwork in Austria in 1945, Getty Images.) Hitler systematically emptied the museums and private collections of Europe during World War Two.
The book tells the tale of a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians – called the Monuments Men – who risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of this culture.
The book specifically follows the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day. The group worked behind enemy lines and were often unarmed."

That was an important time in our lifetime here in Europe and I hope the film will be a good tribute to the brave men who risked their lives during those activities.

I believe that George and Grant would strive to do their best "tribute" as I think they have a great respect for history.

great story
indeed

but I hope for him some rest
before that

This one sounds rather interesting. What do you suppose he considers a 'big budget'? Think Leatherheads was about $60m if I remember right. Sounds like this one could be that much, and then some. Guess Sony was satisfied enough with the $ results from Ides of March to back them with a much larger budget for another one.

Ah finally some art, ... !

And an interesting link on facebook, Link

This does sound interesting. And I'm sure several of these "art expert" characters will be female, seeing as how George is so concerned about the dearth of roles for women these days.

Well Mona Lisa WAZZZZZZ a woman wasn't she ? LOL

And then there was one women involved, Rose, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] .

I like the story line on the movie, it sounds interesting!

Good luck to Mr. Clooney with that project.

According the website about the book there is a prominent woman who was 46 years old at the time....here is her description:

Rose Valland, Temporary Custodian of the Jeu de Paume
Age: 46. Born: Saint-Etienne-de-Saint-Geoirs, France

Rose Valland, a woman of modest means raised in the countryside of France, was the unlikely hero of the French cultural world. She was a longtime unpaid volunteer at the Jeu de Paume museum, adjacent to the Louvre, when the Nazi occupation of Paris began. An unassuming but determined single woman with a forgettable bland style and manner, she ingratiated herself with the Nazis at the Jeu de Paume and, unbeknownst to them, spied on their activities for the four years of their occupation. After the liberation of Paris, the extent and importance of her secret information, which she fiercely guarded, had a pivotal impact on the discovery of looted works of art from France.

From the website:
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Marion Cotillard is I think too young for the part....there must be other actresses who could do it.

Well she should look a bit like the real Rose, no ? [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] or [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

it's me wrote:great story
indeed

but I hope for him some rest
before that

quoting myself


anyway found an Italian book about this amazing story

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Shall we try to help George and Grant cast the film? I'm sure we all have some good ideas for them. Here's the cast of characters from the book:

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Major Ronald Edmund Balfour, First Canadian Army
Age in 1944: 40. Born: Oxfordshire, England.
Balfour, a scholar at Cambridge University, was what the British called a “gentleman scholar”: a bachelor dedicated to the intellectual life without ambition for accolades or position. A dedicated Protestant, he began his life as a history scholar, than switched to ecclesiastic studies. His prized possession was his immense personal library.



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Private Harry Ettlinger, U.S. Seventh Army
Age: 18. Born: Karlsruhe, Germany (immigrated to Newark, New Jersey).
A German Jew, Ettlinger fled Nazi persecution in 1938 with his family. Drafted by the army after graduating from high school in Newark in 1944, Private Ettlinger spent much of his tour of duty lost in the army bureaucracy before finally finding his niche in early May 1945.

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Captain Walker Hancock, U.S. First Army
Age: 43. Born: St. Louis, Missouri.
Hancock was a renowned sculptor who had won the prestigious Prix de Rome before the war and designed the Army Air Medal in 1942. Warmhearted and optimistic, he wrote often to his great love, Saima Natti, whom he had married only two weeks before shipping to Europe for duty. His most common refrain was his joy in his work and his dreams of a house and studio where they could live and work together in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

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Captain Walter “Hutch” Huchthausen, U.S. Ninth Army
Age: 40. Born: Perry, Oklahoma
Hutch, a boyishly handsome bachelor, was a practicing architect and design professor at the University of Minnesota. Stationed primarily in the German city of Aachen, he was responsible for much of the northwest portion of Germany.

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Jacques Jaujard, director of French National Museums
Age: 49. Born: Asnières, France
As the director of the French National Museums, Jaujard was responsible for the safety of the French state art collections during the Nazi occupation from 1940 to 1944. He was a boss, mentor, and confidant of the other great hero of the French cultural establishment, Rose Valland.

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Private First Class Lincoln Kirstein, U.S. Third Army.
Age: 37. Born: Rochester, New York
Kirstein was a cultural impresario and patron of the arts. Brilliant but prone to mood swings and depression, a founder of the legendary New York City Ballet, he is widely considered one of the most important cultural figures of his generation. Nonetheless, he was one of the lowest-ranking members of the MFAA, serving as the very capable assistant to Captain Robert Posey.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Captain Robert Posey, U.S. Third Army
Age: 40. Born: Morris, Alabama
Raised in poverty on an Alabama farm, Posey graduated from Auburn University with a degree in architecture thanks to funding from the army’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). The loner of the MFAA, he was deeply proud of Third Army and its legendary commander General George S. Patton Jr. He wrote frequently to his wife, Alice, and often picked up cards and souvenirs for his young son Dennis, whom he called “Woogie.”

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Second Lieutenant James J. Rorimer, Comm Zone and U.S. Seventh Army
Age: 39. Born: Cleveland, Ohio
Rorimer was a wunderkind of the museum world, rising to curator of the Metropolitan Museum at a young age. A specialist in medieval art, he was instrumental in the founding of the Met’s medieval collections branch, the Cloisters, with the help of the great patron John D. Rockefeller Jr. Assigned to Paris, his bulldog determination, willingness to buck the system, and love of all things French endeared him to Rose Valland. Their relationship would be vitally important in the race to discover the Nazi treasure troves. Married to a fellow employee of the Metropolitan, Katherine, his daughter Anne was born while he was on active duty; he was not able to see her for more than two years.

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Lieutenant George Stout, U.S. First Army and U.S. Twelfth Army Group
Age: 47. Born: Winterset, Iowa
A towering figure in the then obscure field of art conservation, Stout was one of the first people in America to understand the Nazi threat to the cultural patrimony of Europe and pushed the museum community and the army toward establishing a professional art conservation corps. As a field officer, he was the go-to expert for all the other Monuments Men in northern Europe and their indispensable role model and friend. Dapper and well-mannered, with a fastidiousness and thoroughness that shone in the field, Stout, a veteran of World War I, left behind a wife, Margie, and a young son. His oldest son served in the U.S. Navy.

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Rose Valland, Temporary Custodian of the Jeu de Paume
Age: 46. Born: Saint-Etienne-de-Saint-Geoirs, France
Rose Valland, a woman of modest means raised in the countryside of France, was the unlikely hero of the French cultural world. She was a longtime unpaid volunteer at the Jeu de Paume museum, adjacent to the Louvre, when the Nazi occupation of Paris began. An unassuming but determined single woman with a forgettable bland style and manner, she ingratiated herself with the Nazis at the Jeu de Paume and, unbeknownst to them, spied on their activities for the four years of their occupation. After the liberation of Paris, the extent and importance of her secret information, which she fiercely guarded, had a pivotal impact on the discovery of looted works of art from France.

Here are my suggestions:
1. Colin Firth
2. Jamie Bell
3. Robert Downey, Jr.
4. Jon Hamm
5. Vincent Cassel
6. Ewan McGregor
7. Matt Damon
8. Paul Bettany
9. Clive Owen (although if George is planning on acting in this one, this would be his role)
10. Sylvie Testud (French actress from La Vie en Rose)

Missa !!

Brad Pitt would be useful too after his good performance
in Basterds !

I love these types of films,(depending on who's doing it) think G&G would be great with this one. This is one that I'm happy George will also act in, makes it more fun to watch!
George before Clive any day!

Oooh, but George AND Clive? Now that would be good.

Could we get him and Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling in this? Or is that too many big names?

Very good Missa!!!
I would suggest:

7. Clive Owen
9. George or Brad Pitt
10. Cate Blanchett

I'm excited for the new Clooney movie

If George and Grant are still writing this one, then I guess we still have a long wait before they even go into pre-production, right?

Great that he is directing again. I loved "Ides", watched it two times in the cinema, it was a great film and 100% George.

@Katie - It really depends on how fast Grant and George can write. If they're like some people, we can type it out in a few months. But with the awards season in full tilt... I don't think they will get much work done. Maybe they just purchased the rights and are announcing it...

You know how good George is at talking stars into pay cuts, who knows who might be in this one, it's all in the timing.

From his interview with The Hollywood Reporter, George says he's mulling over getting his father to act in it:

After the play, he'll star in Monument Men, a Nazi-era drama he currently is writing with Heslov, in which he wants his father to play his older self.

How cool would that be? They look so alike it'd be perfect.

Katiedot wrote:From his interview with The Hollywood Reporter, George says he's mulling over getting his father to act in it:

After the play, he'll star in Monument Men, a Nazi-era drama he currently is writing with Heslov, in which he wants his father to play his older self.

How cool would that be? They look so alike it'd be perfect.

They certainly do ! but I hope it turns out good, I'd hate to see critisms on them working together - it'd broke my heart
the project in general looks quite intriguing

Maybe Colin Firth wil be involved too ? I hope so.
They were very happy to see each other at the BAFTA's
so that could have been the reason.

I would love to see his dad in a movie with him, that would be payback for rasing him LOL

Yeah he and Colin made a cute date , no?

Yes indeed

Michelle, where did you get your avatar pic? I'd like it for my screen saver! He looks hot!!

He tried to get Nick to be in Fail Safe too, just to play a senator in one of the large group scenes, and Nick wanted no part of it. I don't know if he'd be more willing now, especially if he has actual lines.

fluffy wrote:Michelle, where did you get your avatar pic? I'd like it for my screen saver! He looks hot!!

The oscars 2012 thread. the pic is in there and i right clicked on it. then saved it, then added it as my avatar

I like it a lot because I LOVE the color and the lights behind him. His skin looks good in that lighting..... sorry the photographer in me coming out

Well the artworld is getting excited : Link.

Duffy wrote:This one sounds rather interesting. What do you suppose he considers a 'big budget'? Think Leatherheads was about $60m if I remember right. Sounds like this one could be that much, and then some. Guess Sony was satisfied enough with the $ results from Ides of March to back them with a much larger budget for another one.

don't know about film budget but the movie has got to be expensive because of its location : several countries around europe. Can't to indoors, can't do much studio, plus there's war and fighting, D Day...
hope he doesn't make it commercial in a bad way, but in a good way !

well that's not much to go on, but reference below to a movie he's going to shoot in Europe, so I assume it's Monuments Men ?
At least we know the make up artist (apparently she's worked with George already since she was in the crew of the descendants)

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Celebrity makeup artist Julie Hewett shares her expertise at Jeffre Scott Apothecary during her recent visit to Charlotte
Makeup artist Julie Hewett is possibly the most sought-after woman in her field right now. She has a roster of A-List celebrities who like to work with her exclusively (one of them, George Clooney, just booked her for four months of work on a new movie he’s filming in Europe), and she was the head makeup artist for two Oscar nominated films (“The Descendants” and “The Artist”). Charlotteans were lucky enough to have Hewett work her magic on them during her recent appearance at Jeffre Scott Apothecary, which carries her namesake line of cosmetics. She was in so much demand that owner Jeffre Scott, who’s in the middle of opening another apothecary in Asheville, had to squeeze in double the number of private bookings he planned for his customers who wanted one-on-one consultations with the L.A.-based expert.
“I’m at a point in my career now where I can choose what I do, and I love working with Jeffre, so I wanted to come here,” she said.
To read what I thought about Hewett and her makeup (I’m now absolutely addicted to her Camellia Balm for Lips, Eyes, Face and Hands made with Camellia oil), go to my blog at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Location question. Wasn't he scouting locations in Europe last year at the end of the summer? Wasn't there a story about him going to a French tourist office in Paris for information and told the employees that he was looking for locations for a film he was going to shoot?? Or am I going daft?

Oh, well remembered! Nope, not daft. That was indeed a rumour we heard somewhere. At the time we thought it wasn't true if my memory serves rightly.

huhhh
interesting!

watching wrote:Location question. Wasn't he scouting locations in Europe last year at the end of the summer? Wasn't there a story about him going to a French tourist office in Paris for information and told the employees that he was looking for locations for a film he was going to shoot?? Or am I going daft?

how sad!
it wasn't near my home town.....

Don't see anyone with a "goatee" from those pics above, so is George's face fuzz for this film???? (unless it was the woman Rose Valland!!!!....no insults intended honest.)

What about that other film (CRS again) about the spy or something in Italy? Could that be the one ready to film?

The Monster of Florence!!! I just saw the next post - silly me is shining bright!!!!

“I’m not opposed to doing a commercial film, I’m just opposed to doing a commercial film that doesn’t feel organic to me. So if we’re going to do a commercial film we thought, 'Let’s do something that seems fun and actually have something to say.'”

“Monuments” is an intrigue-filled tale of art theft and espionage in Europe during World War Two. (Photo of U.S. soldiers retrieving artwork in Austria in 1945, Getty Images.) Hitler systematically emptied the museums and private collections of Europe during World War Two.

The book tells the tale of a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians – called the Monuments Men – who risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of this culture.

Here's a point to consider: who likes the "past" locked up in museums? That is why private art & artifacts collections exist, they are more living in the presence of someone with a personal attachment to them than something collecting dust in a dsiplay.

American "Indian" tribes consider it sacriliegion to put their "art" into museums. Their masks and pottery have utilititarianpurposes; they are part of a living culture, their religion is very much alive in these things put into museums where people unconnected to that culture come to view them.

Where was this art from? Who took it away from its original place to put it in museums?

Some have family that was in Germany during this time. They certainly did not fight on the Allied side.

If one is going to do a historical project, it's a good idea to get all sides of an event as to place it into proper historical context

Whoa, whoa! What are you saying Sirius?

To this day there's a big mess with museum artpieces because no one can prove provenance. Many of them came from private collections, mostly from Jewish families who'd had to sell them or just had them taken from them during the war.

The art we're talking about are mostly paintings made by western artists and designed for either hanging on the wall or exhibiting in galleries or museums.

Just what I said, museums, I didn't mention private art collections, but be assured, the Germans were looted of plenty after Versailles.

I hope that he recognizes that the more the country was deprived of his works of art that is all 'Italy!

Re: George Clooney to Direct, Star In 'Monuments Men' About Stolen Nazi Art (Exclusive)
by Katiedot Today at 13:01

.Whoa, whoa! What are you saying Sirius?

To this day there's a big mess with museum artpieces because no one can prove provenance. Many of them came from private art collections..

Take note of this part, "no one can prove provenance.."

So if no can prove provenance, then how is something called "stolen"? This isn't to say someone didn't purchase something and make it their own, as in legit ownership, but how much you wanna bet there's more to this whole thing than meets the eyes?