George Clooney's 'The Monuments Men': Star Writing Directing, Acting In Nazi Art Theft Film
Rolling in awards nominations for his political thriller "The Ides of March," George Clooney is already headed back to work.
According to The Wrap, the star, who next week will go up for three Golden Globes for "Ides," will co-produce, co-write, direct and star in "The Monuments Men," a thriller about art experts assigned by the Allied governments to recover the prolific amount of art stolen by the Nazis out of European museums.
Like with "Ides," Clooney will be working with partner Grant Heslov to create a script from material from another medium. While "ides" was based on the play "Farragut North," the pair will this time adapt from a book. The source original story comes from the nonfiction "The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History," by Robert M. Edsel.
"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 Monuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture," a description of the book on Amazon reads. "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."
Clooney has generally made films on a tight budget. "Ides" was made for just $12.5 million and "Good Night And Good Luck," his Edward R. Murrow film, budgeted at $7.5 million. His most expensive film, 2008's "Leatherheads," cost $58 million. This time, the star says, he'll be venturing on a more expensive endeavor.
"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," he told The Wrap. "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.'"
Directing is now his passion, he told reporters at the Toronto Film Festival this fall.
"My career path for the last 10 years or so is to direct. Directing takes a long time to get done. My day job is acting, That's how I make my living, and directing is something I want to do," he said at a press conference for his other fall film, "The Descendants," for which he is nominated for Best Actor in a Drama at the Golden Globes. "So in between [directing jobs], if I get to work with good directors, there we go."
For more, click over to The Wrap.
Loading comments… 
First Posted: 01/08/12 11:28 AM ET Updated: 01/09/12 01:06 PM ET