Bradley Cooper's new movie tells the crazy true story behind inflatable artillery used to trick the Nazis

On the heels of his Oscar-nominated performance as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle in last year's hit "American Sniper," Bradley Cooper looks to be returning to the war drama genre.

Deadline reports that Cooper's production company with his "The Hangover" director Todd Phillips, 22 & Green, have teamed with Warner Bros. to adapt the book "The Ghost Army Of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived The Enemy with Inflatable Tanks, Sound Effects, And Other Audacious Fakery."

The book title kind of says it all.

In World War II, the U.S. army recruited artists to make up the secret 23rd Headquarters Special Troops with the mission to fool the Nazis in thinking the U.S. Army was larger than it actually was.

They would become known as the "Ghost Army."

To pull this off the unit created inflatable tanks, rubber airplanes, and delivered phony radio messages to make Nazi forces think there were U.S. forces in the area (when, in fact, they were not). 

Ghost Army members who went on to have glowing careers in the arts included painter/sculptor Ellsworth Kelly, wildlife artist Arthur B. Singer, and fashion designer Bill Blass. 

The film will also use the 2013 documentary "Ghost Army" (directed by co-author of "The Ghost Army" book, Rick Beyer) as resource material.

There's no word yet if Cooper will also star in the film.

See the elaborate creations made by the Ghost Army in this trailer for the doc below: