Germany bans Cruise film shoot from military sites
Monday June 25 12:33 PM ET
Germany has barred the makers of a movie about a plot to kill Adolf Hitler from filming at German military sites because its star Tom Cruise is a Scientologist, the Defense Ministry said on Monday.
Cruise, also one of the film's producers, is a member of the Church of Scientology which the German government does not recognize as a church. Berlin says it masquerades as a religion to make money, a charge Scientology leaders reject.
The U.S. actor has been cast as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, leader of the unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the Nazi dictator in July 1944 with a bomb hidden in a briefcase.
Defense Ministry spokesman Harald Kammerbauer said the film makers "will not be allowed to film at German military sites if Count Stauffenberg is played by Tom Cruise, who has publicly professed to being a member of the Scientology cult."
"In general, the Bundeswehr (German military) has a special interest in the serious and authentic portrayal of the events of July 20, 1944 and Stauffenberg's person," Kammerbauer said.
Cruise's publicists could not be reached for comment.
Stauffenberg had been deeply opposed to the Nazis' treatment of the Jews and planted a briefcase bomb under a table near Hitler in his "Wolf's Lair" headquarters on July 20, 1944. The bomb went off but only wounded the Fuehrer.
The film, slated for a 2008 release and to be directed by Bryan Singer and co-starring Kenneth Branagh, is called "Valkyrie" after Operation Valkyrie, the plot's codename.
The main site of interest would be the "Bendlerblock" memorial inside the Defense Ministry complex in Berlin. This is where Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators hatched the plot and where he and his closest comrades were executed when it failed.
Kammerbauer said the ministry had not yet received official filming requests from the producers of "Valkyrie."
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BERLIN (AFP) - The oldest son of a German aristocrat behind an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944 blasted plans by Tom Cruise to play his father in an upcoming film.
The son of Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg said in an interview in Friday's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that he objected to the actor's involvement with the Church of Scientology, adding that Cruise "should keep his hands off my father."
"I hoped for a while that it was all just a publicity stunt by Mr Cruise," said Berthold von Stauffenberg, 72, referring to plans by the Hollywood star to appear as his father in the film "Valkyrie" to be made this summer by director Bryan Singer ("Superman Returns").
"It is sure to be crap. Of course I could be wrong -- I would like to be."
Stauffenberg said Cruise's professed faith in Scientology was "off-putting," adding that the church was not a religion but a "business."
"I am not saying that Cruise is a bad actor -- I cannot judge that. But in any case I fear that it could turn into horrible kitsch," he said, adding that he had been deeply disappointed by previous films on his father.
Stauffenberg said he would not take legal action to try to stop "Valkyrie" but hoped Cruise would drop the project nevertheless.
"He should keep his hands off my father. He should climb a mountain or go surfing in the Caribbean. I don't care as long as he stays out of it," he said.
Stauffenberg led a group of Nazi officers who planted a bomb under a table in Hitler's eastern headquarters in East Prussia on July 20, 1944.
But the Nazi leader escaped with slight injuries because an officer had moved the briefcase containing the explosives behind a sturdy leg of the oak table.
The fact that the assassination attempt failed is now generally regarded as one of the great tragedies of the 20th century.
Between July 1944 and the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, mass killings in death camps were stepped up and four million Germans, 1.5 million Soviet soldiers and more than 100,000 Allied servicemen lost their lives.
