Cruise film on German resistance hero to be thriller

Aug 29, 2007, 16:41 GMT

Actors perform during the shooting of the film \'Valkyrie\' in front of the Ministry of Finance in Berlin, Germany, 18 August 2007. EPA/STEPHANIE PILICK

Berlin - Tom Cruise aims to show how people can retain their humanity even in the darkest times, in his current role as an aristocratic German officer opposed to the Hitler regime, the star says in an interview to be published Thursday.

Speaking to Bunte magazine, Cruise, currently filming Valkyrie in Berlin, says his aim is to make a thriller set against the backdrop of World War II rather than a war film.

'It's about a top-secret plot, about conflicts like loyalty, patriotism, soldierly honour, morality and conscience,' Cruise says in remarks translated from the German-language weekly.

The interview coincided with new allegations against Cruise's production company United Artists over safety measures for extras involved in the movie.

In the film, Cruise plays the German nobleman, Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, who placed a bomb in Hitler's headquarters in 1944. The bomb failed to kill the German leader, and Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators were executed.

In the interview, Cruise says he sees it as 'important to show that there was resistance under the Nazis,' adding that he believes most people who see the film will be surprised at this.

'We aim to show how people, even in the darkest phases of their lives, can maintain their humanity and and can grow beyond themselves,' he says.

Cruise pays tribute to Stauffenberg, a count from an old Prussian family, who was 'prepared to risk everything' for his love for Germany.

And he insists that filming had to take place in Germany. 'We wanted the inner truth, so to speak, and location helps with that.'

Regarding criticism in Germany, and from Stauffenberg's family, that a German should have had the role, Cruise urges critics to wait until they see the film.

'I carry a great responsibility to the Germans, for whom a man like Stauffenberg is of deep significance, and I feel this responsibility to the man himself.'

Cruise also pays tribute to Berlin, saying that he has discovered to his delight that he can take an evening walk with his family in the park. Central Park in New York could learn something from this, he says.

The filming of Valkyrie was hit by controversy earlier this month, when 11 extras playing German soldiers fell off a vintage truck after a wooden side fell down when the vehicle went around a bend in the road.

Several of the extras are claiming compensation from United Artists. Ariane Bluttner, the lawyer representing them, said Wednesday there had been other accidents on the set.

In one unspecified incident, an extra almost died, she said. Others received cuts while filming a scene at Berlin's Nazi-built Tempelhof airport, she added.

'It's the first time I've heard anything like that. I don't know where Frau Bluttner has done her research,' said a spokeswoman for the public relations agency representing United Artists.