When Tom Cruise, the Hollywood icon, decides to do anything, it immediately headlines the news. With his recent downfall from popularity due to his questionable off screen behavior and with the failure of last year’s Lions for lambs, doubts surround Cruise’s crowd pulling power at the box office. Not one with a doubt is critically acclaimed director Bryan Singer. With movies like “The Usual Suspects” to his credit, this filmmaker is out to prove Cruise’s detractors wrong with his latest movie titled “Valkyrie”.
Valkyrie centers on a secret plot to assassinate Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, created by his own men to stop the death and destruction and bring an end to the World War. With Tom Cruise playing Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, the man behind the plot to kill Hitler and with Eddie Izzard, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson and Kenneth Branagh set to play pivotal roles in the movie, the cast looks promising to say the least. The movie is being produced and distributed by United Artists, the company now taken over by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner. The film has a lot at stake, Tom Cruise’s acting prowess for one and raising United Artist’s flagging fortunes, being the other. Bryan Singer was also criticized for his vision of Superman in his 2006 “Superman Returns” and has a thing or two to prove about his credibility as a top notch director. Valkyrie has been abounding with controversy ever since it started filming. First were a series of protests against Tom Cruise and co. filming scenes in Germany, Hitler’s native, because of Cruise’s faith in Scientology. This was followed by law suits filed against the movie bosses for ill treatment of the movie extras. Somewhere in the middle were also postponements of release dates, raising curiosity about the credibility of the final product.
Valkyrie has overcome all of these hurdles and is in post production. The movie is all set to release in the month of December, placing it in contention for the Academy awards.