New Trailer for Historical Action Thriller The Monuments Men

A new trailer has been released by Sony for the historical action thriller The Monuments Men (embedded, below).

Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, this action-thriller focuses on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys — seven museum directors, curators, and art historians, all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1 — possibly hope to succeed?

But as the Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind's greatest achievements.

Directed by George Clooney from an adapted screenplay co-written with Grant Heslov and based on the book of the same title by Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter (more, below), The Monuments Men opens in theaters December 18th, 2013.

— ♦ —

— ♦ —

The Monuments Men
Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter

Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History

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 Momuments 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.