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Ken Russell blasts German authorities over Cruise’s ‘Valkyrie’ shooting ban Posted: 05 Jul 2007 10:24 PM CDT Washington, July 5 (ANI): Director Ken Russell has taken a swipe at Germany’s Defence Ministry for banning Scientologist actor Tom Cruise from filming ‘Valkyrie’ at military sites. The film is about Claus Schenk Graf Von Stauffenberg who led the Operation Valkyrie assassination plot that tried to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944. Cruise has been turned down by the Finance Ministry to shoot the film at a Defence Ministry building, Bendlerblock, in Berlin. The iconoclastic director insisted that the officials are unnecessarily bringing in the actor’s personal beliefs and are forgetting that he is working so hard to make a film on the German hero. “It seems stretching it to make Cruise take the flak for his philosophy of choice while he seeks, with all sincerity and a huge amount of resources, to promote Germany’s favourite son. Give the guy a break,” Contactmusic quoted Russell, as saying. Russell quipped that Hollywood actors are known as ‘eccentric and daredevil weirdos’, so Scientology should not be hyped so much. “Everybody knows Hollywood types are eccentric and daredevil weirdos, don’t they? Where’s the news in that?” he added. Reports had earlier said that the Scientology wary country had banned Cruise from filming the thriller at German military sites due to his religion. UA chief exec Paula Wagner in a statement however insisted that Cruise’s ‘personal beliefs have absolutely no bearing’ on the movie. Cruise is set to play Stauffenberg in the film, who planted a bomb in a briefcase near Hitler at his military headquarters in Rastenburg on July 20, 1944, but while the bomb exploded and killed several officers, Hitler himself narrowly escaped death, thanks to a large oak table in the room that saved him. Stauffenberg was caught and executed that night at Bendlerblock, as were 7,000 other sympathizers. (ANI) (Source: Yahoo India)

Germany backs Cruise’s anti-Hitler film Posted: 05 Jul 2007 10:20 PM CDT By Erik Kirschbaum Thu Jul 5, 8:29 AM ET BERLIN (Reuters) - A German film fund said on Thursday it will grant subsidies worth 4.8 million euros ($6.5 million) for a controversial new film in which Tom Cruise plays a German hero executed for trying to kill Hitler. Despite a row about the film’s thwarted efforts to use a memorial site where the Nazis shot Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), administered by the Federal Film Board (FFA), has endorsed the subsidy. “Yes, it’s been approved,” said Christine Berg, DFFF project head at the FFA. “The application was submitted, the criteria for the grant were fulfilled and the project was approved.” The subsidies are available to any film as long as a German-based producer is involved and certain percentages of the costs fall in Germany. The grant, from a new 60 million euro annual subsidy budget set up this year, exceeds the total cost of most German films. One of the officials said the grant should allay fears that Germany is fundamentally opposed to Cruise playing Stauffenberg because of the actor’s membership of Scientology. The government regards Scientology as a cult masquerading as a religion to make money, a view its leaders reject. Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung has said the filmmakers cannot shoot at any military sites as long as Cruise plays the lead role, and Stauffenberg’s eldest son had said he does not want Cruise to portray his father. However the Finance Ministry, which controls state properties, has said filming is generally banned at the “Bendlerblock” — the site of the conspirators’ execution and now a national shrine within the Defense Ministry complex — because of a bad experience with a German filmmaker. “Valkyrie” — named after the plot’s codename — is due to begin filming at locations in Berlin on July 18. The film is being directed by Bryan Singer and due for release in 2008. Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators were shot after failing to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb on July 20, 1944. (Source: Yahoo)

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