George Clooney's 'Monuments Men' fills out with Daniel Craig, Cate Blanchett and Jean Dujardin
The World War II drama announces a major cast
George Clooney at the Los Angeles premiere of "Argo"
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How many Oscar nominees can you fit into one cast? Okay, Daniel Craig, you'll get there, but in addition to the "Skyfall" actor, director George Clooney has filled out the cast of his World War II drama "The Monuments Men" with Cate Blanchett ("The Aviator"), Bill Murray ("Lost in Translation") and Jean Dujardin ("The Artist"), in addition to John Goodman, Hugh Bonneville and Bob Balaban.
That's a lot of fire power. But Clooney can wrangle that kind of talent easily. He's one of Hollywood's golden boys, primed to receive an Oscar nomination in his sixth category for producing "Argo" this year. Deadline reports that the film, based on a true story and written by Clooney and partner Grant Heslov, tells of a crew of art historians and museum curators who scrambled to recover renown works of art stolen by the Nazi regime, destined to be destroyed.
"The Monuments Men were a group of men and women from thirteen nations, most of whom volunteered, who had expertise as museum directors, curators, art scholars and educators, artists, architects, and archivists," the Monuments Men Foundation website reads. "The Monuments Men job description was simple: to save as much of the culture of Europe as they could during combat."
The Deadline story doesn't indicate whether it's an original screenplay or based on Robert M. Edsel's book of the same name. It does, however, note that the "Argo" crew is tapped for the film, though it only mentions Alexandre Desplat (who scored Clooney's "The Ides of March") by name. So I'm only assuming that means that DP Rodrigo Prieto and film editor William Goldenberg, among others, are on board.
Filming is set to begin on March 1 in Europe. Will we be talking about it in another year or two as an awards player? Well, one thing's for sure. "Oscar nominee..." will be all over the trailer's credits.
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupJJ1
October 29, 2012 at 1:27PM EST Reply to CommentSomewhat reminds me of that great Burt Lancaster film "The Train" from 1965 where the art is stolen and being transported by the Nazis to Germany.
Prettok In response to Frank Lee's comment-
October 29, 2012 at 7:08PM ESTHollywood has made many great WWII movies about people whose problems dont add up to a hill of beans compared to the bigger events going on in the world at the time. It doesnt mean those stories were less interesting or poignant or less deserving to be told.
DylanS
October 29, 2012 at 2:10PM EST Reply to CommentIs Clooney going to be in this or is this going to be his first lone directing gig?
Frank Lee
October 29, 2012 at 6:18PM EST Reply to CommentHmmm. If I were to create a narrative about the Second World War, the least important thing I might possibly select to write would be a story about stolen art works. People died by the tens of millions, cities were leveled, Stalin took over Eastern Europe, Western Europe went into a tailspin of dishonesty pretending that the Soviet Union and the United States were moral equals. All this, and Clooney wants to make a movie about art works that might be destroyed. This reminds me of that idiotic "moral quandry" question that some people pose: if a museum were burning and you could either save the security guard or save the priceless art works, which would you choose to save? Woody Allen answered that question with great comic gusto in "Bullets Over Broadway": to even pose the question is moronic. Life trumps art every time. Here's hoping the art-work plot is a mere diversion from what the story is actually about. If you want to make a heist movie about art set in 2012, fine. But let's not pretend one of Hitler's major crimes was art theft.
Casey Fiore Dude, relax. Maybe part of what appeals about this story is that the tragedy of human loss in World War II is well documented in cinema, and the depth of cultural upheaval in Europe during war time was incredible. i don't think by taking on a true story (note, not a creation) about art heists during the War that George Clooney is saying that art is more important than human life.
October 29, 2012 at 6:36PM ESTSeriously if there's one subject Hollywood has sufficiently covered, it's World War II. I think this sounds like a really cool, interesting angle from which to look at the culture of Europe during wartime.
Bill_the_Bear
October 30, 2012 at 2:18PM EST Reply to CommentI wonder if it was based on the book "The Rape of Europa" by Lynn H. Nicholas, on which the documentary film of the same name was based.