The Monuments Men Still - H 2013
Courtesy of SonyLONDON – George Clooney‘s The Monuments Men will make its international debut as part of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, organizers said Friday (Nov. 8).
Clooney’s movie, in which he also stars alongside Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville is sure to provide a glittering gala event.
The German-American co-production is based on a true story focused on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by the Allies with going into Germany behind enemy lines to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners.
“Over five million cultural assets stolen by the Nazis were returned to their countries of origin in the years following World War II,” said Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick.
“As the recent discovery in Munich [of 1,400 works of art] demonstrates, the art theft of that time is as current as ever. The Monuments Men finally gives this little-known subject a worldwide audience.”
Still missing are thousands and thousands of cultural assets and documents worth billions of dollars.
collection of found objects in a Munich apartment allegedly includes masterpieces by Marc Chagall, Max Liebermann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Oskar Kokoschka, Edvard Munch, Emil Nolde and Albrecht Durer.
Two-time Oscar winner Clooney has been a frequent guest of the Berlinale as a producer, actor and director.
The Monuments Men will be his second directorial appearance in the official program after Confessions of a Dangerous Mind at the Berlinale 2003.
The screenplay is written by Clooney and Grant Heslov, who as screenwriters have twice been nominated for an Academy Award.
The film is based on the book by Robert M. Edsel with Bret Witter and is produced by Grant Heslov and Clooney, who won last year’s best picture Oscar for Argo.
The Monuments Menis a co-production by Obelisk Productions and Studio Babelsberg.
Shooting took place at Studio Babelsberg, in the Goslar region and in Berlin, among other locations.
20th Century Fox, which has international rights, will roll the movie out in Germany on Feb. 20, 2014.
Sony has the U.S. rights and will release the film there on Feb. 7.
The festival runs Feb. 6 through 16, 2014.
