George Clooney loves the story of ‘Monuments Men’ because it explores aspects of Adolf Hitler which aren’t common knowledge.
The 52-year-old Hollywood legend directed, wrote and produced the forthcoming film adaptation of Robert M. Edsel’s book of the same name – full title ‘The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History’.
He was thrilled that he was able to tell an unknown story in the film which follows an Allied group who try and save pieces of art and other items of cultural importance before their destruction by German dictator and leader of the Nazi Party, Hitler, during the Second World War.
Clooney told Variety.com: "I had some understanding that Hitler was stealing s**t. I didn’t understand he was taking all of it. They don’t teach that in school. That’s why I loved the story. We figured at this point, we’ve done so many WWII movies, there really aren’t any new ones. You have to get around to someone as smart as Quentin [Tarantino with ‘Inglourious Basterds’], who can burn Hitler in a movie theatre to do something different."
Clooney worked alongside friends and previous co-stars, including Matt Damon, Bill Murray and John Goodman in the wartime drama and was delighted with how helpful they were when the weather disrupted their filming while they were shooting scenes in the Harz Mountains in Northern Germany.
He says: "It starts to snow. You couldn’t get f***ed worse.
"There’s John Goodman and Bill Murray and Matt Damon all picking up camera boxes and carrying them down this hill with the crew.
"Bill and John would come to the set when they weren’t even in scenes. It was really sweet."
George Clooney loves Monuments Men plot
