Matt Damon to Reunite with George Clooney in ‘The Monuments Men’

After assembling an impressive cast that already includes Cate Blanchett, Daniel Craig, Jean Dujardin, Bill Murray and John Goodman, George Clooney is looking to tap close pal Matt Damon for his upcoming film The Monuments Men. Deadline reports that the two will reunite in the World War II drama which retells the true story of a select group of British and American art experts who are tasked with tracking down some of the most valuable art stolen by the Nazis during World War II.

Clooney co-wrote the script with Grant Heslov based on Robert M. Edsel’s “The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History.” We already know that Clooney will star as George Stout, a US Army officer leading this peculiar mission. Blanchett would take on the role of a member of the French resistance who also happens to know a lot about art history while Giamatti would play Lincoln Kirstein, the co-founder of the New York City Ballet.

No word yet on what role Damon will take on. Production begins next March and from the looks of things, Sony is hoping to get a serious award contender. ‘

At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: “degenerate” works he despised. 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. 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.