Tom Cruise Will Play Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg - Movies & TV - GTAForums Tom Cruise Will Play Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg Started by Don Garcia aka NjNakedSnake, Dec 30 2007 09:16 PM 10 replies to this topic Don Garcia aka NjNakedSnake #1 Posted 30 December 2007 - 09:16 PM In case you guys weren't aware, Bryan Singer (Superman Returns, X-Men) is directing a film called "Valkyrie" which is set for release August 8, 2008. It stars Tom Cruise as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, the aristocratic German officer who led the daring 'July 20' plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. QUOTE (RopeOfSilicon.com) The "July 20 Plot" on Hitler's life is one of the most heroic but least known episodes of World War Two.

Severely wounded in combat, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg returns from Africa to join the German Resistance and help create Operation Valkyrie, the complex plan that will allow a shadow government to replace Hitler's once he is dead. But fate and circumstance conspire to thrust Stauffenberg from one of many in the plot to a double-edged central role. Not only must he lead the coup and seize control of his nation's government ... He must kill Hitler himself. "Valkyrie tells a story that is not only exciting but also important," said Singer. "It's something that Chris McQuarrie and I have wanted to do for some time. I can't imagine shooting it anywhere else but on location in Germany, and I'm thrilled that we were able to get Tom Cruise to play Col. Stauffenberg." "Valkyrie is a gripping thriller that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats -- and also go a long way towards reminding the world that even within the ranks of the German military there was real resistance to the Nazi regime," said United Artists Chief Executive Officer Paula Wagner. "As soon as we read the screenplay, we knew this was a movie we had to make." Valkyrie has begun principal photography in Berlin.

Along with Cruise the film stars Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Eddie Izzard, Christian Berkel, Thomas Kretschmann, and Carice van Houten. Below are two images of Cruise, the first being a comparison of Stauffenberg (left) to Cruise and the second being a full color look at the actor in his German garb. Then a full table pic of the cast. Here, taken from a religious website(?), is the feelings of Stauffenberg's actual, oldest son: QUOTE (ReligionNewsBlog.com) 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 todayï¿½s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that he objected to the actorï¿½s involvement with the Church of Scientology, adding that Cruise ï¿½should keep his hands off my fatherï¿½.

ï¿½I hoped for a while that it was all just a publicity stunt by Mr Cruise,ï¿½ 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). ï¿½It is sure to be crap. Of course, I could be wrong - I would like to be.ï¿½ Stauffenberg led a group of Nazi officers who planted a bomb under a table in Hitlerï¿½s 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. 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.

Stauffenberg said Cruiseï¿½s professed faith in Scientology was ï¿½off-puttingï¿½, adding the church was not a religion but a ï¿½businessï¿½. ï¿½I 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,ï¿½ he said, adding 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. ï¿½He should keep his hands off my father. He should climb a mountain or go surfing in the Caribbean. ï¿½I donï¿½t care, as long as he stays out of it.ï¿½ I for one am really excited to see this film. I'm a big Cruise fan, and even though he's gotten progressively crazy, his acting hasen't been affected. He's still impressive and can still choose good film roles, so I'm all set to see this come late summer.

I remember seeing this movie first covered on the news, but it's the news, so I changed the channel and missed the story. Then recently I remembered it and thought I'd make a topic about it. Very interesting story, very good actors, seems like a pretty refreshing film. I'm thinking Munich meets WW2. Thoughts? Why Germany Hates Tom Cruise - TIME Why Germany Hates Tom Cruise By Andrew Purvis/Berlin Tuesday, June 26, 2007 Tom Cruise and German officer Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. Related Follow @TIME Tom Cruise may suit up nicely as an American flying ace or an acrobatic crime buster, but when it comes to portraying Germany's most beloved anti-Nazi, Germans would prefer a different actor, bitte. Cruise is due to play German officer Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, celebrated for trying to kill Hitler in 1944, but the German Defense Ministry has warned that if Cruise gets the role, Ministry sites will be off-limits to the filmmakers. The reason?

Because Cruise, as the Defense Ministry puts it, "has publically professed to being a member of the Scientology cult." "Stauffenberg played an imporant role in the military resistance against the Nazi regime," a Ministry of Defense spokesman explained Wednesday , adding that "a sincere and respectful depiction of the events of July 20 [the failed plot to assassinate Hitler] is therefore very much in our interest. Tom Cruise, with his Scientology background, is not the right person for this." Ursula Cabreta, director of a government-sponsored group that monitors Scientologist activities in Germany was more blunt. She called the selection of Cruise to play the role of von Stauffenberg a "scandal." The furor says more about Germany's struggle with Scientology than it does about the actor, who does, it's worth noting, bear a passing resemblance to the square-jawed German national hero. Cruise was offered the role, says United Artists CEO Paula Wagner, "because [director Bryan Singer] thought he was perfect for the part. 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." The German authorities have had a long history of run-ins with the Church of Scientology, which they accuse of masquerading as a church in order to make money  a charge the group vehemently rejects. Germany, along with several other European countries, has aggressive laws targeting groups that they deem to be cults. Their hostility to Scientology is also based, Cabreta told TIME, on a perception that the writings of the church's founder , L. Ron Hubbard, split the world into "social " and "anti social" personalities, and also that the group "propagates the idea that Germany is controlled by Nazis." The German government recently tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent the Church of Scientology from opening a new 43,000-square-foot headquarters in the upscale Berlin district of Charlottenburg. The facility opened in January, and Cruise and his wife, Katie Holmes, dropped by earlier this month during a visit that also took in the Von Stauffenberg memorial. The memory of von Stauffenberg is close to German hearts.

His plot to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944, while unsuccessful, has come to symbolize German resistance to the Nazis. Repelled by Hitler's racist policies and military bungling, Von Stauffenberg tried to blow him up with a suitcase bomb at the field headquarters known as Wolf's Lair, but the blast was partially obstructed and failed to find its target. Von Stauffenberg was executed in a purge shortly afterwards. Casting Cruise in the role has drawn fire from a range of sources. "He should keep his hands off my father," Von Stauffenberg's son Berthold told the Suddeutsche Zeitung. "He should go climb a mountain or go surfing in the Caribbean.

I don't care as long as he stays out of this." Von Stauffenberg said that he was not commenting on Cruise's acting prowess, though based on the star's oeuvre, he feared the result would be "terrible kitsch." German actor Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong, The Downfall) told the Welt am Sonntag that Cruise's selection "an absolute catastrophe, a real blow." He said the very idea of this "epitome of modern American action cinema" putting on a German uniform with an eye patch is "quite ridiculous." The furor is unlikely to have any impact on the movie. Entitled Valkyrie and directed by Bryan Singer (Superman Returns), it is still scheduled for release in 2008. The Defense Ministry refusal to allow access to its buildings will bar cameras from the original cluster of rooms, including von Stauffenberg's office, where the plot was hatched, though presumably the setting can be replicated at studios outside Berlin. The German government action seems unlikely to cost Cruise his role.

The publicity, if anything, will probably boost ticket sales, even as Germans find comfort in having spoken out: "I am very glad that the filming permission for such a high-ranking Scientology member could have been prevented," a senior official in the ruling Christian Democratic Union party, Antje Blumenthal said. "This would have equalled an acceptance of Scientology." As the world now knows, Germany is having none of that. Claus von Stauffenberg: the true story behind the film Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise - Telegraph Claus von Stauffenberg: the true story behind the film Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise Nigel Jones 12:01AM BST 17 Aug 2008 On 20 July 1944, a German colonel left a bomb in the Führer's office. It exploded, just missing its target, and the following day the officer was shot.

With the daring plot now being made into a film - starring Tom Cruise - Berthold von Stauffenberg, son of the would-be assassin, tells Nigel Jones how his father's 'moral sacrifice' shattered his and his family's lives Just before 1pm on a boiling hot day in 1944, a 10-year-old boy sat down to lunch at a grand country house in the hills near Stuttgart. An earnest young man, and the heir to one of Germany's most noble families, Berthold von Stauffenberg was in awe of the Nazi regime and talked excitedly about joining the Hitler Youth. But, 800 miles away, his father, Claus, had other plans. A colonel and a trusted member of the Führer's inner circle, he was, at that precise moment, trying to kill Hitler with a briefcase full of explosives. 'It was the closest anyone came to killing him,' says Berthold, now 74 and a fierce guardian of his father's legacy. 'He did what he did, and sacrificed his life, through sheer moral duty.' Claus von Stauffenberg was a 'good German' amid a nation of demonised villains.

An extraordinarily brave soldier and a charismatic leader, his attempt to kill Hitler on 20 July at the Nazi leader's eastern HQ - known as the 'Wolf's Lair' - will receive the Hollywood treatment in a new film, Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise and Kenneth Branagh , being released next year . Looming opposite me in a high-backed chair, Berthold, over 6ft and himself a retired major-general, seems to possess many of the same qualities. He has the natural authority and discipline of a military man and bears the burden of being his famous father's son with dignity and grace. When I meet his steady gaze, I think I understand how Claus persuaded so many co-conspirators to join his crusade and risk their lives. Even so, Stauffenberg was an unlikely assassin. In Tunisia the year before the assassination attempt, Stauffenberg's jeep had been strafed by an American plane, leaving him with one eye and one hand - with just three fingers left on it.

He had amazed his doctors by the speed of his recovery - learning to dress so dextrously using his teeth and three fingers that he joked that he did not know what he had ever used the other seven for - but the idea that this maimed staff officer could prime a bomb, then carry his heavy, suspiciously bulging briefcase into the dictator's presence and plant it under his nose, was unthinkable. Until he did it. Murmuring that he had to make a phone call, Stauffenberg left Hitler's conference room and waited nearby, calmly smoking a cigarette and chatting with colleagues. At 12.42pm the bomb exploded. Without waiting to see the results of his handiwork, Stauffenberg leapt into his car, bluffed his way past two checkpoints, and boarded a plane for Berlin. Behind him, his fellow anti-Hitler conspirators were supposed to shut down the Wolf's Lair's communications network while their colleagues in Berlin launched 'Valkyrie', a plan devised by Stauffenberg for a military coup to seize power from the Nazis. Now, however, the plotters were horrified to see that the 'Wolf' had survived.

Hitler, battered, burned, and with 'a behind bruised as blue as a baboon's' as he jested - but still indisputably alive - staggered from the smoke of the shattered conference room, where four members of his entourage lay dead or dying. Unsure of what to do next - they had not reckoned on Hitler surviving the bomb - the conspirators sent an ambiguous signal to Berlin: 'Something terrible has happened. The Führer is alive.' For the next three hours, as Stauffenberg - the head, heart and hand of the conspiracy - was in the air, the plotters in Berlin dithered, waiting for their charismatic leader to return. But by the time he got to the army HQ in the Bendlerstrasse - today renamed Stauffenbergstrasse in his honour - news was spreading rapidly that Hitler was indeed alive. Generals who had previously promised their support now drew back in fear of Hitler's revenge. SS men who had been briefly arrested on the plotters' orders in occupied Paris and Vienna were freed; and despite Stauffenberg's frantic efforts to shore up support by telephone, by nightfall the coup had collapsed.

After a brief gun battle in which Stauffenberg took a bullet in the shoulder, he and his three closest colleagues were overpowered and immediately shot by firing squad in the Bendlerstrasse's courtyard. His last words were, 'Long live our sacred Germany!' In 1944 Stauffenberg's wife, Nina, and her four children had been spending their summer holidays at the family's country house, Schloss Lautlingen, among the Swabian hills. The day after the bomb, young Berthold and his eight-year-old brother, Heimaren, heard a radio broadcast denouncing a 'criminal attack' on Hitler, but the adults shooed the curious boys away and evaded their questions. Berthold remembers that long summer day with the clarity of a child's memory - the mounting tension before the storm burst: 'My mother's uncle Nikolaus, Count Uxkull - our "Uncle Nux" - was deputed to take us children on a long walk,' he recalls, sitting in his modest 1960s villa in the village of Oppenweiler, north-east of Stuttgart. 'He told us stories about his time as a big-game hunter in Africa to distract us.

At that time, of course, none of us knew that he, too, was a member of the conspiracy. I often wonder today what thoughts were going through his head on that walk.' Uncle Nux was executed for his part in the plot a few weeks later. On 22 July, Countess Nina told her two eldest sons that it was their father who had carried out the attack on Hitler. She added the news that she was pregnant with her fifth child. The boys were thunderstruck. 'Our world broke apart in an instant,' Berthold says, fixing me with an intense stare. He could no longer connect the two poles of his existence - caught between the father he adored, and the Führer and the Nazi system he had been taught to revere. 'I was a conformist and well on the way to becoming a little Nazi,' he admits. 'My dearest wish, which my mother fortunately prevented, was to march through our home town, Bamberg, carrying a flag at the head of the junior branch of the Hitler Youth. 'To my shocked questions about why my father had wanted to kill the Führer, she replied that he had believed that he had to do it for Germany's sake.

This was so shattering for me that I don't think I was able to think clearly again for the rest of the war. We children loved our always-cheerful father above all things; he was our absolute authority - although he was often absent fighting the war - and now this! And then the blows fell thick and fast.' The next day, Nina and Uncle Nux were arrested and taken to Berlin by the Gestapo. Even Nina's aged mother and aunt were seized, and the children were left in the care of their nanny, their grandmother's housekeeper, and two Gestapo officials. To deter acts such as Stauffenberg's, the Nazis had passed a decree known as 'Sippenhaft' ('kin detention') under which the families - including children - of those committing 'treason' against the regime were to be arrested and punished, too. As they awaited their fate, cut off even from their friends in the village, the children feared for the future. 'On the radio and in the newspapers there were daily hate-filled reports about the conspiracy,' says Berthold. 'We - myself and my brothers aged eight and six, and my three-year-old sister - suddenly felt that we were alone. Outcasts.

I will never forget that feeling.' As an adult, Berthold's own military career included two stints as Germany's military attaché in London and as a result, he speaks fluent English with an Oxford drawl. Before he can continue the story, the phone rings. It is the military museum of his father's former regiment, calling him on some trivial matter. I sense that such calls come with unwelcome frequency, but Berthold is too polite and dutiful to refuse. As he courteously fields their enquiries, I take the opportunity to nose around his home. Berthold's wife is away - preparing a party for the couple's golden wedding anniversary next month - and the only other inhabitant is Tanya, their black dachshund who scurries behind me, paws tap-tapping on the wooden floor. ?Various ancestors peer down at me from the walls, but at first I can see no sign of Berthold's father. Then, in a small corner, I come across a shrine to the great man. There is a large crucifix and a bronze bust of his handsome head and a couple of black-and-white photos.

Taken on one of his last leaves, Stauffenberg has his arms around Berthold and his other children, smiling at the camera. An eye-patch covers his left eye, betraying the trauma of his recent battle in Tunisia but, apart from this, the soldier looks like a happy family man, at peace with the world. There is no hint of the cataclysm to come. When I return, I find Berthold off the phone and preparing to eat lunch. 'Sit down,' he barks, directing me to a chair with a view of a hill crowned by a castle. 'Not one of ours,' Berthold says. 'But it was built by the Hohenstaufens, Germany's medieval rulers, from whom we derive our name.' Lunch is served by Berthold's next-door neighbour. She respectfully calls our host by his noble title 'Graf'. We are given a homely Swabian pasta called 'spatzle'. As we eat, Berthold returns to the events of 1944. On 16 August, 1944, nearly a month after the assassination attempt, Berthold remembers being taken, with his siblings, to a Catholic priest for his blessing.

'He told us that it was likely that bad times awaited us, but that we must never forget what our father had died for. Only later did I realise how brave his words were.' The next day they were transported by train to a children's home at Bad Sachsa, near Nordhausen in the Harz mountains. The siblings were separated in chalets according to age and gender, and joined by the children of other conspirators. Although the director of the home, Frau Kohler, a Nazi party member, was 'strict and authoritarian', other staff members were 'outstandingly friendly', recalls Berthold. 'They never gave us the feeling that we were shunned by society.' Behind the scenes, however, darker forces were at work. Unknown to the children, plans were afoot to re-name them, since Hitler had decreed that the very name Stauffenberg should be wiped out. They were to be called 'Meister' and were apparently destined to be adopted by SS or loyal Nazi families. But before this, the children were to be sent to Buchenwald concentration camp; a fate they avoided thanks to the near-miraculous intervention of an Allied bombing raid.

'At Easter 1945,' says Berthold, 'my siblings and I, together with other conspirators' children, were put into an army truck and driven towards Nordhausen station, where we were to be put on the train for Buchenwald. But, just as we reached the town's suburbs, a fearful Allied air raid began which totally destroyed that quarter of the town, including the station. I heard later that a Nazi official who tried to restore order after the raid was lynched by the enraged townspeople. The war was nearing its end by then, and the party's authority was breaking down.' The Nazis had no option but to drive the children back to Bad Sachsa, and a few days later, on 12 April, the American army liberated them. 'We had a grandstand view of the fighting as American planes - Mustangs and Lightnings - roared overhead,' Berthold remembers. 'Once the war came uncomfortably close when the strawberry patch outside our chalet was shot up.' But the children stayed put, as Hitler committed suicide in the Berlin bunker and Germany capitulated in May. ?They were cared for by two kindergarten nurses who had not fled with the rest of the staff.

Suddenly, on 11 June, their great-aunt Alexandrine, who worked for the Red Cross, arrived with a bus to drive them home 'through a devastated Germany', as Berthold remembers, to Lautlingen, now in the French occupation zone. The war may have ended, but for the Stauffenbergs - and millions of other Germans - in the starving, bomb-blasted, bereaved and ruined wasteland that Hitler had bequeathed them, the suffering went on. The children had to mourn their father, uncle, aunt and maternal grandmother (who had died of typhus in an SS camp) - and their mother was still missing. Only in July 1945, exactly one year after Stauffenberg's bomb exploded, was the family unit reunited at Lautlingen. After her arrest, Nina von Stauffenberg had been interrogated by the Gestapo in Berlin's police headquarters, before being sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi concentration camp for women. From there she was taken to a maternity home at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder where she gave birth to her fifth child, Konstanze, in January 1945.

Fleeing westwards from the advancing Russians, mother and baby were both infected by a bug on a chaotic hospital train, and were brought, under Gestapo guard, to a Catholic hospital in Potsdam. After recovering, they were entrusted to a single policeman with orders to take them to Schönberg, where other 'Sippenhaft' prisoners were detained. 'But the cop saw such a "political" job as beneath him,' says Berthold. 'The war was ending and he just wanted to go home. So he simply abandoned my mother and her baby in a village - but not before getting her to write him a certificate stating that he had carried out his orders - very German! Here, they were found by the advancing Americans and thus she became the first "Sippenhaft" captive to be freed - although no one in conquered Germany really felt free'. Berthold and his siblings, young as they were, had seen the worst of humanity in the space of one short year. And even in their rural retreat there was more to come. Given licence by their officers to plunder, the occupying French Moroccan troops ran amok in Lautlingen, looting and raping. The terrified villagers sought sanctuary with the Stauffenbergs.

'As the village "squires" we offered a measure of protection,' explains Berthold. Ironically, they were also forced to share their schloss with the families of the Gestapo officials who had been billeted on them. Underlining the fact that inhumanity was not confined to the Nazis, Berthold saw the doomed Russian soldiers of the 'Vlasov Army' - turncoats who had fought alongside the Germans, and which his own father had helped to raise and equip - herded onto trains bound for Russia. What was their fate? 'At best Stalin's Gulag - at worst, a bullet in the neck,' he replies grimly. Strange, given this history, that when the time came for him to choose a career of his own, young Berthold opted to follow his father into the German army. He reached this decision during the two terms he spent at Gordonstoun - the Scottish sister school of his German boarding school, Salem.

Unlike the Prince of ?Wales, he enjoyed his time at the reputedly spartan school: 'I'm not particularly tough,' he says, 'but even so, I found Gordonstoun pretty soft.' He denies that his career choice had anything to do with his father - 'Even though I knew his shadow would always accompany me.' 'It was simply the right choice for me,' he insists. 'It was in my genes. And I was not disappointed - I never regretted it for one day.' But his father's shadow duly fell over him: 'I came to dread the question "Are you your father's son?"; after all, what is one supposed to say? But, especially in the early days, there were many in the army who had known my father, and there was always the unspoken question: why had they not chosen the path that he had? Why had they taken refuge behind the oath of loyalty they had all sworn to Hitler and used it as an alibi not to act?' Berthold commanded a Panzer brigade and rose to head the army in the southern zone of Germany. Before he retired in 1994, he spent almost his entire career preparing for the war against the Russians that never came.

Would he have fought them as his father had? 'Of course.' Strolling among fruit trees in the orchard behind his villa - Berthold still owns 150 hectares of family farmland and forest in the Stauffenbergs' ancestral Swabian heartland - I ask why his mother, who died in 2006 aged 92, had never married again; she was only 31 when the war ended. 'First, because she worshipped my father and his word was law - what man could live up to him? Second, because there weren't many eligible men around in Germany after the war, and third, what man would want to take on bringing up five children?' Stauffenberg sons, it seems, come in trios: his father had two brothers; Berthold himself has two brothers and he has three sons. 'None of them are soldiers.

The oldest one is in IT, and married to an Iranian doctor; the second teaches, and the third lives in London where he is "something in the City".' Berthold, as befitting the head of an extended clan which traces its roots back to the Middle Ages - at least 50 Stauffenbergs attend their annual reunions - is an aristocrat to his fingertips, with the antique but admirable attitudes of his caste. So is his wife, Mechthild, the Countess von Bentzel-Sturmfelder-Horneck von Oppenweiler (he calls her 'Maus' for short). Nazi Germany, with its armies of thugs, crooks and time-servers was no place for such nobility. Before he was led out to be shot, Stauffenberg's penultimate last words, addressed to a secretary, were: 'They've all left me in the lurch.' Despite his grumbles, the same imperative of duty dictates Berthold's tending of the family flame - such as his attendance at the annual ceremony on 20 July honouring his father's death in the Berlin courtyard where he and his companions were shot.

'Naturally, I've had to live with my father all my life; and I've always been compared to him - especially in the beginning by those who knew him - but this had less to do with 20 July, and more to do with his overpowering personality'. As flamekeeper, Berthold has spoken out against the coming portrayal of his father by Tom Cruise in the film Valkyrie. Speaking to the German newspaper Der Spiegel last year, he said: 'It is unpleasant for me that an avowed Scientologist will be playing my father. I'm not saying that Cruise is a bad actor - I can't judge that. But I fear that only terrible kitsch will come out of the project. He should keep his hands off my father. He should climb a mountain or go surfing in the Caribbean. I don't care what he does, so long as he keeps out of it.' Today, Berthold chooses his words more carefully, and will only say gnomically, 'We'll see what the film is like. I hope they don't play too fast and loose with the facts.' But it seems unlikely that he will enjoy the film.

For a noble Stauffenberg such as Berthold, other people's standards are never high enough. ROUGH RIDE OF THE VALKYRIE The most controversial film of Tom Cruise's career – before a single frame was shot November 2006 Christopher McQuarrie, screenwriter of The Usual Suspects, presents the initial idea of a film based on the Valkyrie plot to director Bryan Singer. March 2007 The duo pitch the project to United Artists partners Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise, who agree to finance the film, with Cruise to star as the plot's leader, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. June 2007 The German government forbids filming on Bendler Block, Berlin, the site of Stauffenberg's execution. Officials state their disapproval of the 'dignity of the place' being violated. Berthold von Stauffenberg, interviewed in a German newspaper, declares that the film is 'bound to be rubbish'. July 2007 Filming of Valkyrie begins in Germany. Release date set for 27 June 2008. July 2007 Tom Cruise's affiliation with Scientology begins to receive attention.

In Germany, Scientology is regarded as 'an organisation pursuing commercial interests' rather than a religion. Politicians, journalists and members of Stauffenberg's family express opposition to Cruise's role as Stauffenberg. The German Federal Film Fund grants 4.8 million euros to United Artists in order to assist with the production. Producers receive permission to film at Tempelhof International Airport's Columbia Haus, a former Nazi prison for political inmates. August 2007 Ten extras are injured after falling off the back of a truck during filming in Berlin. One of the actors receives a serious back injury, while others suffer bruises, cuts and head injuries. September 2007 The German government reverses its decision to forbid filming on Bendler Block. However, the production is denied a request to film at a Berlin police station. October 2007 Footage is damaged beyond repair at a post-production firm in Munich. Production is forced to re-shoot several scenes. November 2007 Tom Cruise is awarded a Bambi, Germany's most prestigious media award, for his role. December 2007 MGM and United Artists announce that the release date will be moved forward from June to October 2008.

April 2008 The release date is postponed once more, to February 2009. Rumours spread that Cruise's German accent is comically suspect and that there are plans to re-record some of his lines. May 2008 The Weinstein Company acquires the rights to a 2004 German film called Stauffenberg, based on the same material. June 2008 More criticism inside Germany after claims that United Artists altered photos of Stauffenberg to make him look more like Tom Cruise. Alterations were reportedly made to the nose, chin and eyebrows. UA denies any tampering. A year after filming began in Germany, three scenes are re-shot in North Africa. Filming finally ends in late June. August 2008 Early reviews of Valkyrie contain several revelations: there are no comedy German accents; one of Tom Cruise's hands is digitally erased; and it's 'pretty great'.

BEN BARUCH Telegraph readers can buy 'Countdown to Valkyrie', by Nigel Jones (Frontline Books £19.99), published on October 20, at a 20 per cent discount off the £19.99 RRP (ie £15.99) plus free P&P for all direct orders (a total saving of £8.50). To take advantage of this offer call 01226 734 555 or visit and quote the reference code 'VALK44'. Start your free 30 day Amazon Prime trial» Tom Cruise Film Project Faces Resistance in Deutschland - Google Groups Tom Cruise Film Project Faces Resistance in Deutschland Showing 1-1 of 1 messages Erich Von Stroheim's [pince-nez] Mien 6/22/07 2:02 PM Because of his ties to Scientology, Tom Cruise is not welcome to use Germany's defense ministry as a location for his next film, officials said. The US actor-director is reportedly planning a movie about the July 20, 1944 attempt to assassinate Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, who survived the blast bloodied but not seriously injured.

Cruise is expected to play Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, the military officer who led the plot and was promptly executed in a courtyard, close to his own office at the army and navy HQ. The German defense minister now uses the building as his office along with a Defense Ministry complex in Bonn. Denying recognition Antje Blumenthal, party spokeswoman for the Christian Democrats on sect issues, said Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung had assured her Cruise would not be given a clearance to film inside the secure site. She said letting Cruise inside would have seemed like Germany's recognition of Scientology. Babelsberg Studios near Berlin said the company was unaware of any shooting schedule for the movie with the working title "Valkyrie," and was still in co-production talks about the project. The defense ministry said it had not received any request to use the building. News reports said Cruise had taken a look at the military building from outside and studio scenes were to begin on July 19. Son complains Stauffenberg's oldest son, Berthold, meanwhile said in remarks quoted Friday by the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung that he objected to a practicing Scientologist playing his father.

"I hoped for a while that it was all just a publicity stunt by Mr. Cruise," said the 72-year-old retired major general of the German Bundeswehr. He added that Cruise "should keep his hands off my father." "It's sure to be crap," he said of the movie. "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," he said. "But, in any case, I fear that it could turn into horrible kitsch." Stauffenberg added that he had been deeply disappointed by previous films on his father. While he said that he would not take legal action against the movie plan as his father was a historical figure, he hoped Cruise would drop the project nevertheless. "He should climb a mountain or go surfing in the Caribbean," he said.

"I don't care as long as he stays out of it." Pre-production Set of "Valkyrie" [test shot of actors for PR stills as pre-release Ad 'tickler'] "Yavole heir Commandant!!" Hogan's Heroes extremely popular in Germany! snip> Years after its debut, the show became popular in Germany, where it was originally titled Stacheldraht und Fersengeld (Barbed wire and turning tail), later changed to Ein Käfig voller Helden (A cage full of heroes). In the German version, the Germans speak in various different accents, which was regarded as very funny in Germany at that time. The contrast between Klink, the Prussian stereotype, and Schultz, the Bavarian stereotype ("Urbayern" in German) is an example. It also introduced a new character, Kalinke the cleaning lady, who is referred to, but never seen, as she was not in the English language original. Another major change is that Newkirk, who speaks with a British accent in the original, is changed to a hideous stutterer in the German version." German Joys: Tom Cruise as Stauffenberg? Why the Hell Not? Tom Cruise as Stauffenberg?

Why the Hell Not? July 03, 2007 It seems we are, indeed, going to be treated to a movie called "Valkyrie", in which Tom Cruise will play Claus Schenk, Graf vom Stauffenberg , the conservative German military officer who organized the plot to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944. The project has already made lots of amusing waves in Germany, mostly because Tom Cruise is a member of the Church of Scientology. This odd synthetic can-do American Value-Pak half-religion half-business combo is a focus of almost-pathological obsession in Germany. The government -- and I'm not kidding here -- actually spends millions tracking the organization and writing hand-wringing reports about its "unconstitutional" world-view. Stauffenberg's son said Cruise should "keep his hands off" my father, and that the film will "surely be crap." Various German officials, always keen to protect their subjects from the insidious danger of Scientology, fell all over themselves to announce that they had denied Cruise's film team permission to film in various government-owned buildings -- sometimes even before a request had even been made.

Now director Florian Graf von Donnersmarck (scion of a wealthy and well-connected German family with ties to the von Stauffenbergs) steps up to the mike to break a few lances (as the German saying goes) in favor of the project. Excerpts, in my translation: [In a brochure recommended by a German politician to warn citizens about Scientology] much is made of the fact that L. Ron Hubbard began his career "writing Westerns, horror stories, and science fiction." Then he wrote a history of the world which smacks of science fiction, and which is taught to his disciples as the truth, in return for lots of money. But isn't it glorious that we live in a world in which a half-successful science fiction writer can earn hundreds of millions by explaining to his disciples that, 75 million years ago, an evil ruler named Xenu deposited billions of his subjects into volcanos and blew them up with hydrogen bombs? And that the resteless souls of these murdered people are now the source of all our suffering on earth? The horribly boring pressure to conform that thrives everywhere in Germany these days will not tolerate this. It demands complete correctness in all aspects of life.

But perhaps, in this context, one should take a closer look at Stauffenberg. As youngsters, my brother and I discovered a letter from Stauffenberg in a book, in which he wrote his wife that the population of Poland were "rabble," composed of "many Jews and many half-breeds," "a people that enjoys rule under the jackboot." ... But do we therefore deny Stauffenberg his glorious heroism, his strength of conscience and his exemplary character? Of course not. But his superhuman perfection? That, yes. ... Perhaps we should simply recognize that none of us is a god -- neither Stauffenberg nor Tom Cruise nor L. Ron Hubbard nor the rest of us. Germany offers no patent recipe for the world, and neither does the United States. In truth, everyone must find his own way in the world, and life remains a search for inner truth. Stauffenberg represents exacly this search. All I wish for from the state is that it should provide me a secure framework in which I can carry out this search. But in the Tom Cruise/Stauffenberg affair, the German state again pretended it had all the answers already.

Claus von Stauffenberg Biography (Soldier/World War II Figure) Died: 21 July 1944 (execution) Birthplace: Jettingen, Germany Best known as: The German colonel who almost killed Hitler Count Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg is remembered as one of the tragic heroes of World War II. Born into an aristocratic German family, von Stauffenberg was a German army officer during the war but grew disillusioned with the Nazis. Eventually he joined a plot to kill Adolf Hitler . Von Stauffenberg planted a briefcase bomb during a staff meeting with Hitler on 20 July 1944. The bomb went off as planned, but by chance Hitler was shielded by a heavy conference table and survived. Von Stauffenberg escaped the blast and flew to Berlin, where he and others had hoped to lead a coup. Instead he was captured the same day and executed early the next morning.

Extra credit: Actor Tom Cruise played Von Stauffenberg in the 2008 film Valkyrie… Von Stauffenberg was played by actor Sebastian Koch in the 2004 German TV movie Stauffenberg, and by Brad Davis in the 1990 American TV movie The Plot to Kill Hitler. Copyright © 1998-2017 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved. Advertisement Advertisement Grave of Hitler's would-be assassin 'found in woods of Berlin suburb' | Daily Mail Online Grave of Hitler's would-be assassin 'found in woods of Berlin suburb' comments The secret grave of would-be Hitler assassin Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg may have been discovered on the 66th anniversary of the failed plot. The aristocratic German colonel could have be laid to rest in the woodland of a Berlin suburb after being shot on July 20, 1944, a former cemetery inspector’s will reveals. The Nazis, who killed Stauffenberg along with several other top brass who plotted to execute the Fuehrer by blowing up his military HQ, did not want their graves known.

Hero: Tom Cruise played the role of Stauffenberg (right) in the 2008 film Operation Valkyrie. The aristocrat (right) planned to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb Now, plans have been made to search for the leader of Operation Valkyrie's remains in the woods at Wilmersdorf. And, if they are found to be Stauffenberg, who is considered a hero by modern Germans, he will be re-buried with fill honours. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share The revelations follow the discovery of the will of a former cemetery inspector at Gueterfelde graveyard. In the document he claimed that his predecessor, who died in the 1950s, had revealed to him the location of the secret burial ground. It is alleged that on the night Stauffenberg was executed – just hours after his own attempt on Hitler had failed – ‘excited’ SS officers woke the man from his sleep. They asked to be ‘guided to an area where they could dig a grave big enough to take 10 bodies’. Grave?

Stauffenberg is said to be buried in woods beyond Gueterfelde cemetery After the cemetery inspector showed them where to dig he was dispatched back to his quarters and warned to ‘say nothing’ of the night’s proceedings. He was convinced, following news of the failed plot in days after July 20, 1944, that Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators had been buried there. The German Military Grave Registration Service has no knowledge of the burial. But the Nazi state regarded the plotters as traitors anyway and wanted them to have no known grave. The plot to kill Hitler and overthrow the Nazi state – detailed in the Tom Cruise movie Valkyrie, in which he played the doomed nobleman – was hatched by disillusioned army officers who knew Germany had no chance of winning the war and were disgusted by atrocities they witnessed on the eastern front. Stauffenberg, who had been blinded in one eye and lost a hand and two fingers during fighting in Tunisia, planned to kill the Fuehrer by carrying briefcase bomb into a conference room where Hitler would meet his military staff before making an excuse and leaving.

Inner circle: Stauffenberg standing to attention, left, as Hitler visits the Wolf's Lair Damage: But Stauffenberg's bomb failed to kill Hitler after a general moved the device and as a result the Nazi leader was shielded by a heavy oak table But the attempt at the Wolfsschanze - Wolf’s Lair – in East Prussia failed after one general moved the briefcase and the heavy oak table shielded Hitler from the blast. Stauffenberg and several others were shot dead in the courtyard of the Bendlerblock, the army HQ in the centre of Berlin, in the hours following the coup attempt. He was relatively lucky in his death. Thousands more alleged conspirators were hanged on piano wire in the Gestapo prison of Ploetzensee in Berlin. Their death throes filmed for Hitler to view in private at his cinema at his Berchtesgaden mountain retreat. Stauffenberg is a hero to the authorities in modern-day Germany with numerous streets and buildings named after him. A torch-lit parade will take place tonight at the spot where he was shot, attended by senior German government figures.

Claus von Stauffenberg (Character) Claus von Stauffenberg (Character) from Valkyrie (2008) The content of this page was created by users. It has not been screened or verified by IMDb staff. There may be more photos available for this character. To select more photos to be displayed in this character's gallery, click the Edit Photos link. Overview Count Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg... See more » Alternate Names: Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg / Col. Klaus von Stauffenberg / Colonel Claus Schenk Count von Stauffenberg / Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg / Colonel Von Stauffenburg / Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg / Count Claus von Stauffenberg / Lt. Col. Count von Stauffenberg / Oberst Claus Graf Schenk v. Stauffenberg / Oberst Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg / Oberst Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg / Oberst Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg / Stauffenberg / Von Stauffenberg Filmography (as Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg) ... aka "Stauffenberg - Die wahre Geschichte" - Germany (original title) ...

aka "Stauffenberg: The True Story" - International (English title) (literal English title) (as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg) ... aka "Walküre" - Germany (literal title), USA (alternative spelling) ... aka "Walküre/Valkyrie" - USA (complete title) (as Oberst Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg) ... aka "Stauffenberg" - Germany (original title) (as Lt. Col. Count von Stauffenberg) ... aka "Women of Nazi Germany" - USA (reissue title) (as Oberst Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg) ... aka "Der 20. Juli" - West Germany (original title) (as Oberst Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg) ... aka "Es geschah am 20. Juli" - West Germany (original title) Valkyrie - Claus Von Stauffenberg - YouTube Valkyrie - Claus Von Stauffenberg Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now.

Please try again later. Uploaded on Jun 15, 2008 This film was created about 6 years before Bryan Singer and Tom Cruise stole the idea. It is clearly an accurate portrayal of Stauffenberg -- There is no dramatization or fictional influences in this film - no inspiration other than 100% factual evidence, obviously. Category Standard YouTube License Music

Question: In which film does Tom Cruise play Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg?
Answer: Valkyrie