Valkyrie (film)

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Valkyrie is a 2009 historical thriller film directed by Bryan Singer and starring Tom Cruise. The film is based on the July 20 Plot of German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Cruise will portray the leader of the plot, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. Cruise's casting caused controversy among German politicians and members of Stauffenberg's family due to the actor's practice of Scientology, though German newspapers and filmmakers gave support to the film to spread global awareness of von Stauffenberg's attempted plot. The filmmakers of Valkyrie initially had difficulty setting up filming locations in Germany, but they were later given leeway to film in locations pertaining to the film's story, such as Berlin's historic Bendlerblock. Valkyrie is slated for a February 13, 2009 release.

[edit] Synopsis

During World War II, German Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise) is severely wounded in Africa and returns home to Nazi Germany. Stauffenberg helps conceive Operation Valkyrie, a plan approved by Adolf Hitler which, in order to manage turmoil within Germany, would implement a shadow government in the event of the Nazi Führer's death. The Colonel eventually joins the German Resistance and becomes part of the July 20 Plot, a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler and execute Valkyrie in order to take control of the country and make peace with the Allies. Stauffenberg finds himself taking on not only the responsibility of leading the coup, but also the task to assassinate Hitler himself.^[1]

[edit] Cast

The cast of Valkyrie

• Tom Cruise as Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, a German World War II colonel and Catholic aristocrat who leads the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Describing Stauffenberg's heroism, Cruise said "I thought of it in terms of what Stauffenberg represents. He was someone who realized that he had to take the steps that ultimately cost him his life... He recognized what was at stake." Stauffenberg lost his left eye, right hand and two fingers on his left hand in an Allied attack in Tunisia, so Cruise affected the same disabilities to practice dressing, moving items and writing.^[2]
• Kenneth Branagh as Major General Henning von Tresckow, the architect of the plot.^[3]
• Christian Berkel as Colonel Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim.^[3]
• Bill Nighy as General Friedrich Olbricht.^[3]
• David Schofield as Field Marshall Erwin von Witzleben.^[3]
• Terrence Stamp as Colonel General Ludwig Beck, former Heer chief of staff.^[3]
• Kevin McNally as Carl Goerdeler, former Oberbürgermeister of Leipzig.^[3]

Others:

• Carice van Houten as von Stauffenberg's wife, Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg,^[4]
• David Bamber as Adolf Hitler.^[5]
• Eddie Izzard as Erich Fellgiebel.^[6]
• Tom Wilkinson as Friedrich Fromm.^[7]
• Thomas Kretschmann as Otto Ernst Remer.^[8]
• Gerhard Haase-Hindenberg as Hermann Göring.^[9]
• Anton Algrang as Albert Speer.^[10]
• Matthias Freihof as Heinrich Himmler.^[11]

Stephen Fry^[12] Ian McNeice^[13] and Tom Hollander^[13] will appear in the film. Patrick Wilson was originally cast in Valkyrie, but he dropped out due to scheduling conflicts and other unspecified reasons.^[14]

[edit] Production

German World War II colonel Stauffenberg (left) and actor Tom Cruise (right). Cruise was attracted to the role based on the resemblance of his profile to the colonel's.

After director Bryan Singer completed three major productions X-Men (2000), X2 (2003) and Superman Returns (2006), he sought a smaller project before embarking on the Superman sequel.^[15] In late 2006, screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie presented to Singer a story that took place in World War II. In the following months, the two collaborated on the project, an original thriller that would be a multi-character ensemble piece. In March 2007, the duo brought the project directly to United Artists partners Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise, who immediately agreed to finance the film.^[16] The script is based on the actual events of German generals plotting to assassinate Adolf Hitler during World War II. Singer invited Tom Cruise to take the lead role, which Cruise accepted.^[17] Cruise had been provided a picture of Stauffenberg, in which the actor noticed a similarity in his profile with the German colonel, drawing him to the role.^[18] The project, having the title Valkyrie, casts Cruise as the German colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who led the July Plot to assassinate Hitler.^[19]

The producers of Valkyrie expressed interest in filming at Bendlerblock, a memorialized location where Stauffenberg and his comrades had plotted to assassinate Hitler.^[20] In July 2007, Germany's Finance Ministry had denied the producers the right to film at Bendlerblock, explaining that the site should be treated as a "place of remembrance and mourning" which would "lose dignity if we were to exploit it as a film set". The producers were also denied a request to film at a Berlin police station by the department, citing adverse impact to the facility.^[21] By the following September, the German government had a change of heart concerning the Bendlerblock site and gave permission to the production to film there.^[22] A United Artists spokesman said that they were "very grateful" for the decision, saying that the site "[had] always been important to us symbolically, creatively and for the sake of historical authenticity" and that the company had been in continuous talks with the German government in order to clear up any misconceptions about the nature of the film.^[23] Filming has also been carried out in some of the houses which were used to hide the bombs in 1944.^[24]

In July 2007, the German Federal Film Fund issued €4.8 million^[25] (US$6.64 million) to United Artists to assist with production, adding to a total of a US$80 million production budget, two-thirds of which will be spent in Germany.^[26] In the same month, producers received permission to film at Tempelhof International Airport's Columbia Haus, a former Nazi jail for political prisoners. Production has also involved World War II planes with swastikas painted on the sides, practicing in the airspace above Brandenburg. A replica set of Hitler's Eastern front headquarters Wolf's Lair was constructed 60 kilometers south of Berlin, though the headquarters' actual location was in modern-day Poland.^[27] Nazi symbols, the display of which is usually illegal in Germany, were also used at several locations, and while the filmmakers gave forewarnings to local residents,^[28] a passerby witnessing the use of swastikas during filming in Berlin filed an official complaint with the city. Similar charges have also been filed against the owners of sites set up to show Nazi displays for the film's production.^[29] Production began on July 18, 2007 in Berlin.^[28] Filming has also taken place at Babelsberg Studios, a previously-diminishing studio which had been revived by the presence of Valkyrie being produced in Germany.^[30] During filming on August 19, 2007, eleven people were hurt when the side panel of a truck they were riding broke, with one person requiring hospitalization.^[31]

Before filming the scene of Stauffenberg's execution at Bendlerblock, Tom Cruise led the cast and crew in holding a moment of silence,^[32] "out of respect for the place and out of respect for the life achievement of these people who were executed there," according to actor Christian Berkel.^[33] After filming of the scene was completed, the footage was sent to be developed for the post-production process at a processing plant in Germany. The wrong chemical was accidentally used in development, damaging the film and requiring the crew to seek permission from the government to re-shoot the scenes. Permission was granted and a spokesman for the film indicated the schedule and budget had not been affected.^[34][35]

After the production was unable to find a suitable location for key battle sequence at the beginning of the film set in North Africa, in which von Stauffenberg loses his eye and hand, production was halted while locations were scouted.^[36] In April 2008, Singer was reported to film the desert sequences in the coming two months, possibly in the United States. The overall cost of production was not revealed by the studio, but it reportedly cost $100 million.^[37]

[edit] German response

In June 2007, prior to production, a German Defense Ministry spokesperson said that filming of Valkyrie would not be allowed at the country's military sites if protagonist Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg was portrayed by Tom Cruise, due to the actor's adherence to Scientology, which has been labeled a dangerous cult by the German authorities. The spokesperson further indicated that the ministry had not at that time received official filming requests from Valkyrie's producers.^[20] Colonel von Stauffenberg's son also voiced concerns over Cruise's portrayal of his father, saying that he would not oppose the film's production, but hoped that Cruise would drop the role. "I fear that only terrible kitsch will come out of the project. It's bound to be rubbish," Berthold Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg said. "Cruise should keep his hands off my father."^[38] Later in the month, the ministry reversed its stance and welcomed production of Valkyrie. The initial controversy reportedly stemmed from German member of parliament Antje Blumenthal, an authority on cults for the conservative CDU party and well-known opponent of Scientology, who had claimed that the German Defense Minister had assured her that the film would not be shot in the country.^[39] In addition, Cruise was attacked by junior politicians such as Rudolf Köberle, the state secretary for interior issues in the state of Baden-Württemberg, who also cited Cruise's affiliation with Scientology.^[5] Thomas Gandow, a spokesperson for the German Protestant Church, said Cruise's involvement in the film would "have the same propaganda advantages for Scientology as the 1936 Olympics had for the Nazis" and compared the actor to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.^[40]

The film subsequently found some local support in Germany. Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck considered Cruise's involvement would promote awareness of a neglected story,^[21] and veteran German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl also gave his support to the production.^[27] A grandson of Colonel von Stauffenberg, who is appearing in the film as an assistant, hailed Cruise's professionalism and indicated that most of his family were curious to see the finished product.^[41] In September 2007, when the Defense Ministry initially denied permission for filming at the Bendlerblock memorial, support for the film came in from German newspaper columnists and filmmakers, including director Wolfgang Petersen^[22] and Frank Schirrmacher, journalist and co-publisher of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Schirrmacher visited the set and agreed that the film would advance global awareness of the German Resistance. Ultimately granting access to the Bendlerblock after reviewing the script, the Defense Ministry said it showed that "barbarism didn't triumph but led to the founding of a democratic Germany". Ursula Caberta, who is in charge of a German government office which monitors Scientology, was disappointed in the ministry's decision, saying "Tom Cruise [is] a figurehead of an anti-constitutional organization, and he should be treated that way."^[29]

A spokesperson for Scientology in Berlin, Sabine Weber, said in August 2007 that she was "shocked" by German politicians' criticisms, adding that it was a "call to discrimination" against someone based on their religious beliefs.^[42] In the same month, Cruise suggested to his critics that they see the film before denouncing it.^[43] In October 2007, fellow Valkyrie actor Kenneth Branagh said that the issue had been "largely exaggerated" and that the German official who initially incited the complaints contacted the production one week into filming to apologize, after reading the script and realizing he had misinterpreted the film's plot.^[24]

In November 2007, the head of the German Resistance Memorial Center warned against any potential "myth formation" around von Stauffenberg as a result of the film, urging that any understanding of the Colonel must also be informed by the fact that he had been loyal to the Nazi cause for most of his military career.^[44] In the same month Cruise was given a Bambi courage award, presented by German media company Hubert Burda Media, "for tackling a story that had never been covered by Hollywood before".^[45]

[edit] Release

Valkyrie was originally slated to be released in August 8, 2008,^[46] but the film was moved up earlier to be released in June 27, 2008.^[47] The release date was again moved, to October 3, 2008, to avoid competition from WALL-E and the delayed Wanted, ^[48] and to enable the filming of a key battle sequence, after the production was unable to find a suitable location for the scenes.^[36] The date was also chosen to increase the film's chances of awards success.^[49] In April 2008, the release date was pushed back to February 13, 2009, with the studio citing the early fall schedule as too crowded with Academy Award prospects.^[37] Valkyrie will instead take advantage of the lucrative President's Day weekend, after The Wolf Man and The Pink Panther Deux were moved from this date.^[50]

The theatrical trailer for Valkyrie has received "mixed buzz" over Tom Cruise portraying Stauffenberg with an American accent.^[51] The attempted resurgence of the studio United Artists under producers Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner has placed pressure on Valkyrie to perform well following the poor box office debut of Lions for Lambs and the canceled production of Pinkville.^[52] The postponed release of Valkyrie drew criticism about the viability of United Artists, and the studio aimed to combat the criticism leading up to the film's eventual release.^[37]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Valkyrie at the Internet Movie Database
• Official site and trailer
• Alternate trailer location
• Behind-the-scenes featurette
• Script review (in German)