Filming has begun on Tom Cruise movie Valkyrie on location in Berlin where an army colonel was executed during World War II.

“We granted all permissions but the one, for the Bendler Block because the dignity of this place should not be violated,” said government spokesman Torsten Albig.
The building, which is known as Bendler Block, is currently a memorial for resistance fighters of the Third Reich.

“These circumstances show that the religious beliefs of the actor are without relevance,” he said.

Stauffenberg and the other plotters of the July 1944 attempt on Hitler’s life were apprehended and executed after Hitler survived the explosive charge of a suitcase bomb that had planted in his conference room.

The movie is named after Operation Valkyrie, the assassination plot’s codename - is directed by Bryan Singer and also stars Kenneth Branagh. It is to be released next year.

“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 Colonel Stauffenberg,” said Singer in a statement.

Potsdam, Germany - Germany’s Stauffenberg family has broken ranks over a the true-life movie in which Tom Cruise is to depict their ancestor who tried to kill Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, with a family member taking a role in the film. The production company said Friday that Philipp von Schulthess, who is a grandson of Count Claus von Stauffenberg, would play the role of a 1944 German Army adjutant in the film Valkyrie, which began shooting this week.

It was not known Friday how Schulthess came to be in the cast, but it appeared he had attended an audition.

Filming is to begin next week in Berlin on “Valkyrie,” named after the code name of the plot. Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager, 89, told a German Newspaper that the commotion in Germany over the Hollywood actor’s religious beliefs in no way disqualified him to play the part of Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg in “Valkyrie”
“I think it is good that Cruise is playing Stauffenberg,” Boeselager said in an interview to be printed Wednesday.

Boeselager belonged to Stauffenberg’s cadre of aristocratic military officers who conspired to kill Hitler in 1944.

The group planted a bomb under an oak table in Hitler’s headquarters in East Prussia.

But the Nazi leader survived with slight injuries because another officer had moved the briefcase containing the explosives behind a thick leg of the oak table.

Stauffenberg was found later that night and executed by firing squad alongside other officers at the Bendlerblock, then the army headquarters in Berlin which now servers as a memorial to the German resistance.

Boeselager, who had acquired the explosives used in the attempt on Hitler’s life, said he believed the Hollywood thriller had an important message to send to international viewers.

BERLIN — Looks like the Germans like Tom Cruise after all. Despite the controversy and permit issues surrounding the Bryan Singer-directed WWII thriller “Valkyrie,” the German federal film board has approved a $6.5 million in tax incentives for the project.

A German film board spokeswoman confirmed that “Valkyrie” was entitled to the automatic tax rebate because it is being produced along side Germany’s Studio Babelsberg.

Shooting on the film, the true story of German officer Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and his failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, is set to begin July 19 in Babelsberg with Cruise playing the hero.

Valkyrie’ is about Count Claus Schenk Von Stauffenberg, the Second World War hero, who led the Operation Valkyrie assassination plot that tried to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944.

Stauffenberg 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.

Entrance to Bendler Block 1942

  SS officers in the courtyard of Bendler Block after the failed assassination in July, 1944.  

COLOGNE, Germany - The German Defense Ministry is scrambling to qualify its position on the Tom Cruise World War Two thriller “Valkyrie,” saying on Thursday that, despite reports to the contrary, it has no opposition to the film shooting in Germany.

News reports earlier this week had started officials would ban “Valkyrie” from shooting at German military sites because of star Cruise’s religous beliefs.

The ministry now says that, while it hasn’t received an official request from “Valkyrie” producers United Artists to shoot in the country, it would “look agreeably” upon any such application.

The film, slated for a 2008 release, tells the true story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise), the leader of a failed German military plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. The film’s title comes from Operation Valkyrie, the plot’s code name.

The producers have expressed interest in shooting at the Bendlerblock memorial in Berlin. It is the actual location where Stauffenberg and his fellow conspirators hatched the plot to assassinate Hitler with a bomb hidden in a briefcase. It also is where Stauffenberg and the other plotters were executed after the attempt failed.

from wiki

In Norse mythology the valkyries are minor female deities, who served Odin. The valkyries’ purpose was to choose the most heroic of those who had died in battle and to carry them off to Valhalla. This was necessary because Odin needed warriors to fight at his side at the preordained battle at the end of the world, Ragnarök.

from FOXNEWS

According to the Internet Movie Database, one of the first members of the crew who’s been secured is a prosthetics expert.

That’s because by the time Cruise’s character in “Valkyrie” — a Nazi general under Hitler’s command — is in full throttle on screen, he’s already lost an eye and a couple of limbs.

“Valkryie” is based on an original script by Singer cohorts Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander. It concerns an unsuccessful plot by his generals to murder Hitler in 1944 — not because the Cruise character opposes the Holocaust or Hitler’s other policies, but because he’s worried that the world’s most evil despot will ruin Germany in the history books.

Cruise is executive producer on this unusual project, which he’s making for United Artists with Merrill Lynch’s money.

He and Singer have already hired, according to trade reports, an eclectic cast including Carice van Houten, the sizzling sexpot from the misguided Paul Verhoeven thriller “Black Book.” Also coming aboard are said to be Tom Wilkinson, Kenneth Branagh, Patrick Wilson, Bill Nighy and Stephen Fry.

Tom’s character, just to keep you up to date, is Claus von Stauffenberg, who was executed by the Nazis for attempting to kill Hitler with two suitcase bombs on July 21, 1944. Prior to the assassination attempt, Claus was severely maimed, which means Cruise should be looking pretty grim for most of the film, unless he decides to alter history.

One reason Cruise may have agreed to do this project is because von Stauffenberg is considered by some Germans to be a folk hero.

At the height of the 2nd World War, a group of top ranking German officers secretly plan a plot to assassinate the Fuher - Adolph Hitler, and seize power over the military in order to end the war. The operation was codenamed “Valkyrie”