Germany has barred the new Tom Cruise movie from being filmed at military sites in the country solely because of the actor's close ties to Scientology, the Defense Ministry said on Monday. Cruise, who is also one of the film’s producers, is the most famous and vocal member of the Church of Scientology which the German government identifies as a money-making cult and not a religion.
For the film, the Cruiser has cast himself as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a real life German Army officer who, along with others, tried to assassinate Nazi fuhrer Adolf Hitler in July 1944 with a bomb hidden in a briefcase.
Defense Ministry spokesman Harald Kammerbauer said the film makers “will not be allowed to film at German military sites if Count Stauffenberg is played by Tom Cruise, who has publicly professed to being a member of the Scientology cult”.
He also added, “In general, the Bundeswehr (German military) has a special interest in the serious and authentic portrayal of the events of July 20, 1944 and Stauffenberg’s person."
The film, slated for a 2008 release and to be directed by Bryan Singer and co-starring Kenneth Branagh, is called “Valkyrie” after Operation Valkyrie, the plot’s codename.
The main filming site was to be the “Bendlerblock” memorial inside the Defense Ministry complex in Berlin where Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators hatched the plot and where he and his closest comrades were executed when it failed.
