Cruise Film Gets German OK - 2007-09-17
Cruise Film Gets German OK September 17, 2007,
The flap erupted in June, after the Defense Ministry announced that it was going to bar filming at the Bendler Block. A key reason behind the decision, according to officials at the time, was Cruise's affiliation with Scientology. In Germany, where the government provides assistance to organized religions, a 1995 court ruling determined that Scientology was a cult "masquerading as a religion to make money." Moreover, the film's subject is close to the hearts of many in the German military. Cruise is playing Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, a square-jawed young Prussian colonel who tried to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944, but who was executed after his plot failed. Von Stauffenberg was resurrected as a resistance hero to many who rejected the war and its legacy.
