George Clooney 'We Made a Monuments Man French for Jean Dujardin'

George Clooney 'We Made a Monuments Man French for Jean Dujardin'


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27 January 2014

George Clooney has confirmed reports he erased at least one of the original Monuments Men from history as he planned his new war movie - to make way for The Artist star Jean Dujardin.

The movie star and his producers have come under fire from the family of real-life monuments man, British art expert Ronald Balfour, for leaving him out of the film, in which Clooney stars alongside Matt Damon, Bill Murray and John Goodman.

Last week (begs20Jan14), Balfour's niece, Polly Hutchison, told Britain's The Times, "The achievements of the monument men and women were magnificent and we owe them all a great debt, but it saddens us as a family that what could have been a great opportunity to remember our uncle's bravery has been sadly missed. "He certainly was a brave man...

He wasn't saving art for one side, he died saving it for mankind...

As a family we are very proud of him". And, while promoting the new film, Clooney admits he and his fellow writers had to revamp history a little. He explains, "There were no French Monuments Men, but we wanted Jean Dujardin in the film, so we made him French.

"And we changed the names of them, so we could mess around with them a little bit".

Clooney also reveals he wrote the characters around the actors he wanted to portray them on the big screen, joking, "Casting was fun. We couldn't get Brad (Pitt) so we got Matt (Damon).

"We hadn't thought of Bob (Balaban) yet and we went to an Argo party and we saw Bob and we knew we wanted Bill (Murray) in it, so we kept thinking, 'Who could we put opposite Bill that he could give a really hard time to,' and then we were at this party with Bob and (production partner) Grant (Heslov) and I said, 'It's perfect'".

The film follows the fortunes of a real-life gang of art experts, tasked with stealing back valuable paintings and sculptures from the Nazis during World War Two.

Not sure if we have this article already, if so will delete

Thanks theminis, lucky french