Berlin, Mar 13 (IANS/EFE): American actor and director George Clooney began shooting in Berlin this week his new film, "The Monuments Men", which tells the story of seven men who will do anything to recover the works of art stolen by Germany's Nazi army.

Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Hugh Bonneville and John Goodman are some of the stars in the cast of a movie scheduled to be in production until next summer.

The film will be a coproduction of the German studio Siebente Babelsberg Film GmbH together with Clooney and Grant Heslov's production company Smokehouse Pictures, in what will be its first project since taking the Oscar for Best Picture with "Argo" in February.

Clooney's part in the filmmaking will go beyond producing and directing - the actor also collaborated with Heslov in writing the screenplay.

The film, based on a book authored by Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter, tells the true story of the World War II battalion sent by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to scour Germany for the works of art seized by the Nazi army and return them to their rightful owners.

Sony Pictures will be in charge of distributing the movie in Spain while Twentieth Century Fox will handle the task internationally.