The trailer for George Clooney and Grant Heslov's war film The Monuments Men  was released Thursday.

The movie is based on the Robert Edsel book of the same name, which documents the mission of art historians and museum curators who unite to retrieve art stolen by the Nazis during World War II.

"Grant and I were looking to do a film that was less cynical than a lot of the films we do," Clooney told USA Today about the vision he and his co-screenwriter had. "We went into Sony and pitched it and got greenlit right there. The story was just so compelling."

Aside from being the film's director, Clooney also stars in the drama alongside Matt Damon, Bill Murray and John Goodman.

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"I'm to put a team together and do our best to protect buildings, bridges and art before the Nazis destroy everything," Clooney is heard telling Damon in a clip from the trailer.

The team consists of seven people, including Clooney and Damon's characters, who risk their lives to protects various historical achievements that lie behind enemy lines.

"If you destroy an entire generation of people's culture, it's as if they never existed," Clooney says later in the clip. "That's what Hitler wants and it's the one thing we can't allow."

Cate Blanchett, who also appears in the film, discussed the film with HitFix in July calling it an "extraordinary story." She joked and said that with a star-studded cast consisting of Murray, Damon and Clooney all trying to locate the art, "it doesn't always go to plan." She also said the story was not something was knew about beforehand.

"I mean, it's one I wasn't particularly familiar with, this group of architects, curators, historians who go in and locate and save this stolen art that the Nazis were amassing, and with the Nero Decree, it was about to be destroyed so it's a ticking time bomb."

Based on a true story, The Monuments Men comes to U.S. theaters on Dec. 18.

Tags: George Clooney Matt Damon