George Clooney is back on the big screen in Hollywood blockbuster The Monuments Men, which was partly filmed at IWM Duxford.

Directed and starring Clooney, The Monuments Men features an internationally acclaimed ensemble cast, many of whom were at Duxford, in Cambridgeshire, for the filming,

The movie also stars Matt Damon, of Ocean’s Eleven and The Bourne Identity fame, and Lord of the Rings trilogy and Hobbit actress Cate Blanchett, who also played Queen Elizabeth in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which was filmed at Hatfield House.

Bill Murray (Lost in Translation, Ghostbusters), John Goodman (Argo, The Big Lebowski), Jean Dujardin (The Artist) and Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville also appear.

Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on an unlikely World War Two platoon, tasked with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners.

The production at Imperial War Museum Duxford was a large-scale operation, involving not only the leading actors, but also more than 300 extras, over a nine-day period.

Filming took place across the aviation museum, including the north side of the site, which is not open to the public, but houses IWM’s collections within historic buildings that made up the domestic side of the RAF fighter station.

Second World War aircraft and vehicles were brought to the museum to act as props and set dressing for the scenes.

IWM Duxford’s historic buildings, control tower and airfield feature significantly in the movie.