Poor Tom Cruise. He just can’t catch a break these days. First Paramount gives him the boot, then he thinks he’s fighting back by buying his own movie production company in United Artists and making films with the likes of Robert Redford and now Bryan Singer.
But a ghost from his past has risen up to haunt him – a German-speaking ghost. Because the country’s traditional problems with Mr Tom’s beloved Scientology are keeping him from the locations that Singer wants for the based-on-truth World War Two movie Valkyrie.
The German Defence Ministry has decided to deny the production access to some military sites, meaning that the crew will likely have to look elsewhere in the country to shoot the tale of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise), a resistance hero who attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1944 with a briefcase bomb.
But according to Tom’s team, the production will go ahead as planned: “Production is going ahead and the movie is going to be shot in Germany,” United Artists spokesman Allan Mayer told Variety. “As to what particular locations will be used, that’s still being decided.”
Cruise’s production partner and UA chief Paula Wagner had more fightin’ words in a statement: “Aside from his obvious admiration of the man he is portraying, Mr. Cruise’s personal beliefs have absolutely no bearing on the movie’s plot, themes or content,” she insisted. “And even though we could shoot the movie anywhere in the world, we believe Germany is the only place we can truly do the story justice.”
Will Tom get his way? Stay tuned…
