Germans ban Cruise from filming
HOLLYWOOD star Tom Cruise has been banned from filming his new blockbuster at German military bases because he is a Scientologist.
Cruise is currently making the movie Valkyrie, based on a German officers’ plot to kill Adolf Hitler near the end of the Second World War.
He 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.
However, the production has been barred from using current military bases because of the German Defence Ministry’s fears that they will not get an “authentic portrayal” due to Cruise’s beliefs.
Defence 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”.
He added: “The Bundeswehr [German forces] has a special interest in the serious and authentic portrayal of the events of July 20 1944 and Stauffenberg’s person.”
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. The bomb went off but only slightly wounded the Fuehrer.
The film, geared for a 2008 release and to be directed by Bryan Singer and co-starring Kenneth Branagh, takes its name from Operation Valkyrie, the plot’s codename.
The main site of interest would be the Bendlerblock memorial inside the Defence Ministry 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.
Mr Kammerbauer said no official filming requests had been received from the producers of Valkyrie.
Scientology, founded by science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard, is watched in Germany by the BND, the German version of MI5, because it is seen as a disturbing cult.
Last night Cruise’s publicists could not be reached for comment.
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