George Clooney will write, direct, and star in a big-budget movie about stolen art and Nazis

George Clooney the actor and filmmaker has put together a pretty admirable filmography for himself over the years. While usually not outright hits or misses, the man’s films have always been clearly about telling interesting yet familiar stories, but from a fresh context. Basically, Clooney has avoided having his stuff fall into the usual Hollywood formula.

So next up for the A-Lister is of course… a big-budget Hollywood film? Uh oh! The movie is called THE MONUMENTS MEN, an adaptation of the book by Robert M. Edsel about “a hand-picked group of art experts chosen by the U.S. government to retrieve artwork stolen by the Nazis.” Is Clooney going formula?? Fret not! The dapper filmmaker tells The Wrap that while the film will be large and mainstream by his usual standards, his approach to storytelling will remain the same:

“I’m excited about it. It’s a fun movie because it could be big entertainment. It’s a big budget, you can’t do it small — it’s landing in Normandy.”

“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. 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.'”

Clooney will co-write (along with producing partner Grant Heslov), direct, and star in the film adaptation. The book specifically follows the 11-month period between D-Day and V-E Day, following a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, and art historians – called the Monuments Men – that worked behind enemy lines and were often unarmed as they risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of this culture.