Tom Cruise's "Valkyrie" Delayed Again

Tom Cruise's World War II thriller "Valkyrie" has pushed back its release date to 2009, the second postponement for a production that has endured its share of headaches.

The MGM release has been moved from October 3 to February 13, coinciding with the U.S. Presidents Day holiday weekend. Last December, it was pulled from its original July 4 holiday weekend berth where it would have competed with the Angelina Jolie thriller "Wanted."

"When an opening became available for President's Day Weekend, we seized the opportunity," said MGM distribution president Clark Woods, referring to Universal's recent decision to pull "The Wolf Man" out of that slot and into April 3.

"Valkyrie" is the true story of a German officer, played by Cruise, who tried to assassinate Hitler. The German government initially banned the production from shooting on location at the Berlin site where the plot was hatched and the conspirators executed. It later changed its mind after months of national debate that focused in part on Cruise's Scientology beliefs.

Keep reading

-or-

Read how "Valkyrie" was pushed back once already, from summer '08 to October.

-or-

Watch the trailer:

Comments

[Bluedog12]

Is this the movie where he plays a natzi dancing around in his underwear when Adolf and Ava go on vacation?

[ENK727]

Actors with English accents and seeing Tom Cruise in it kind of ruined it for me.

[chendri887]

God, it looks horrible. And, I know it's challenging, but can the actors at least learn and speak English with an accent appropriate to the culture which they are representing, be it German or Prussian?

[aristippe]

not bad actors.

[dotmafia]

I don't understand why no patriotic American doesn't do the exact same thing with the criminals in the White House, as German officer Stauffenberg tried against Hitler.

Oh wait. Patriotism. I forgot.

[Ramirez]

What's stopping you?

[bintk6]

Who care he's already rich.

http://IGotUGGs.com

[petuniafish]

Come on.
The guy's a great actor. You don't have to like his belief's or preaching but he's done some fine acting.

Interview with the Vampire.
Collateral
Magnolia
A Few Good Men
Jerry McGuire
Rainman
Born on the 4th of July

He deserved an award for several of those. He was superb esp. in Rainman, Born of the 4th, Interview and Magnolia. You can not like him personally but admire his talent. Or not.
I think Jack Nicholsen is tiresome.

[rainey]

The guy is a good looking (if bland) piece of wood who got some good roles. And, aside from being useless as an actor, he's batsh*t crazy, pushing a destructive cult and getting older as we type.

[aristippe]

Yeah occasionally Tom Cruise's is able to surpass his incredibly limited range.

[Ramirez]

Good list. I would add "The Last Samurai."

And Top Gun and Risky Business. He nailed both roles. Pitch perfect.

The problem with roles like in Valkyrie (and I hate to say this) is that he is just too short and too American. It's just not going to work, no matter what he tries, or how it's directed.

[Trittydi]

The only one in this group that I thought was any good was Rainman - and I thought he was wonderful (Hoffman stole the spotlight though). Cruise played a spoiled shit. He was a natural.

I laughed so hard during Interview With a Vampire that my kids kept threatening to throw me out of the room.
*

[TheCowman]

How come everyone has an accent except Cruise??

I love the guy...but everyone in the movie sounds English or German, yet he sounds like Spicoli from Fast Times At Ridgemont High.

[Nooneyouknow]

Sorry, I can't get past Cruise in a Nazi uniform playing an aristocratic Prussian officer. It's too silly.

[TheWesternBreed]

I'm going to be picky here; Stauffenberg was a South German, not a Prussian at all. The distinction meant a lot to these people. Most of the other principal conspirators were Prussians, however, including General Henning von Tresckow, played in the movie by Kenneth Branagh, and who in real life acted as Stauffenberg's conspiratorial mentor.

[Hallucinocynic]

Thank you.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

Not picky. Clarification is good! Thanks.

[MikeDu]

A movie about an inside plot by disgruntled army officers to bring down a mad warmongering tyrant before he wrecks their country entirely? Would you say this is a vague commentary on the Bush admin, in the same vein as "Invasion of the Body Snatchers' was a commentary on Cold War paranoia and conformity?

[MNCurler]

Only an idiot like you would see this kind of similarity.

[MikeDu]

Did you hear about the recently revealed Nation Guard soldier who was pressured into torturing prisoners, refused and instead went back to her barracks and blew her brains out?

Did you hear about the fifteen year old Iraq girl who was held as a sex slave at Abu Graib? The MP charged $50 bucks a pop for the privelage of raping her. Earned some goos money off her til she eventually hung herself in her cell. The association as this movie plot and the Fascist Bush administration is apt.

[GenRom]

MikeDu is an idiot!

[innocenti]

I don't see why you need to go directly into insult mode. If you disagree, tell us why. Insulting the person only makes you look foolish and doesn't educate us to your point of view.

[innocenti]

...and one more thing, and this is more important. Insulting others inhibits discussion, which is what this is all about.

[Trittydi]

"Invasion of the Body Snatchers"? Are we talking about Scientology again?
*

[falcao]

I'll watch anything with the wonderful Bill Nighy in it. And Eddie Izzard too.

[RyanK111]

Cruise aside, what the hell is with all the real/vague/phony british accents? The an American accent or two thrown in for good measure. A Revolutionary War epic, I can understand. But a Nazi pic? Come on. It's just smacks of packaged-Hollywood-by-the-numbers-historical thriller. Where will it stop? I can't wait for the moment Hitler shows up in the final scene and shouts with tyrannic authority: "G'Day Mate!"

[Graywolf48]

I suppose mastering a German dialect is too difficult? I agree the British accents spoken by actors in German uniforms will detract from the picture. But, once again I have a feeling that we'll be treated to Tom Cruise playing Tom Cruise called Colonel Count Klaus von Stauffenberg. There is precedent however, I remember James (The Desert Fox) Mason playing Rommel, British accent and all. Looks like a lot of pageantry and dark settings, but not an above average film depiction of an important story. Back to the IMF, Tom.

[bunnyhead]

Same thing with the film "Enemy at the Gates" about WWII Stalingrad - German and Russian combatants speaking with English accents. What's up with that?

[MikeDu]

This is an old Hollywood protocol. Watch those Roman Empire movies of the 50s and 60s like 'Spartacus' and 'Ben Hur'. Roman elite always had the upper crust Brit accents. Officers too. Soldiers and slaves had American or 'cockney' accents. The sole exception was always the young slave girl love interest. She's not meant to be 'from the gutter' (American accents) so is given an English accent as refined as her Roman masters.

"Enemy at the gates" falls outside of this - almost. It was a British movie filmed 35 years later. So the soldiers have British accents, the Soviet officers have the lower-class 'cockney' accents, and the evil Nazi killer of course has the American accent.

[nastyvirus]

They do that whenever a character is a foreigner.

American = California, New York, or Minnesota accent
Roman = British accent
German = British accent, with a lisp

And when the character is extremely foreign, an accent is made up for him/her/it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6OAaTunBik

[TheWesternBreed]

Other than Tom Cruise, almost all of the principal actors are British, except for one or two Germans. Not British-playing-Americans, in which case it would make sense for them to switch accents, like half the cast of "Batman Begins," or even British-playing-Germans-speaking-English, but British actors playing real Germans who only spoke German to one another. That being the case, why have them talk like Colonel Klink and Sergeant Schulz from "Hogan's Heroes" in an attempt to add "verisimilitude"? I agree with the accent decision, anything else would have been justly described as absurd whenever the movie comes out.

Since the senior plotters were almost universally members of the German aristocracy, the high bourgeoisie, and/or the senior ranks of the army, having them talk cut-glass "English" could also be viewed as a means of showing their (high) class status.

In the fine, much-overlooked 1990s movie "The Inner Circle," about Stalin's movie projectionist, the whole cast consisted of Russians speaking English, obviously with heavy accents, and two western stars, one British and one American, who had to speak their native English with their own versions of the standard "Volga boatmen" Russian movie accent to match everyone else. That seems silly too. There's no perfect way around the problem.

[GenRom]

The reason for rescheduling is to give Tom additional time to repair his public image. Personally, I don't believe that is something that can be accomplished. Tom would have to denounce scientology, get rid of his beard, and go through intensive brain detoxification. I think I'll just stay at home and watch Star Trek reruns and not donate my $$ to the cult.

[adled]

You, like so many other posters give WAY too much credence to his ostensible 'bad' publicity.
If a film he is doing is something I might like to see then I'll see it. Now if he was someone like John Stamos then I would be suspicious of the film's quality. Doesn't mean a Tom Cruise film wont suck, it just means where he is involved a film will not lack for resources; money and other stuff.

[GenRom]

Maybe you should watch Cocktail??? It is a film totally void of talent BUT it has some really good "stuff" like fancy bartending antics, pretty beaches, and perhaps a cool yacht or car.......Sounds exactly like the "quality" of film you describe....and there's a bonus for you...Tom Cruise is in it!!!

[PaleMail]

Excuses, excuses for postponement of release. Obviously focus groups have declared Valkyrie a stinkeroo of a movie.

[Noracharles1995]

Lolol, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.....

[dora rice]

CRUISE IS BEING OVER EXPOSED FOR TO LONG. I COULD CARE LESS TO SPEND MY MONEY ON A TOM CRUISE MOVIE. BETWEEN HIS PERSONAL LIFESTYLE, HIS, WHAT HE CALLS, RELIGION, AND HIS DUMB MOVIES , I FEEL I WOULD WASTE MY MONEY EVEN FOR A ONE DOLLAR CD.

[BlackWidowPilot]

Who are you, and what have you done with "dora rice?"

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[tumblewind]

I could get interested in the movie if he weren't in it! I just can't imagine him as any kind of a hero!

[rainey]

What? Did you miss the video in which he tells you he's gotta stop for accidents because only he is capable of being a hero? He levitates ashtrays too, doncha know!

[mugwamp]

Yeah, but I can picture him (all too easy) as a nazi...