First Look: George Clooney's 'The Monuments Men;' Trailer Out Thursday

Thursday August 8, audiences will get their first look at George Clooney's latest directorial effort, The Monuments Men. Featuring one of the most impressive casts in recent memory (Clooney, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Hugh Bonneville, Bob Balaban), it's the true story of art historians who attempted to protect the world's greatest pieces of art from a thieving Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. It's scheduled for release December 18.

The trailer will be out Thursday, but below, check out the first image from the film.

Thanks to the Entertainment Weekly Facebook for this image.

Check back Thursday for the trailer. Here's the description of the original book by Robert M. Edsel (Clooney adapted the screenplay with Grant Heslov.)

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.