Cruise finishes shooting war movie in Germany; Robert Redford due

Oct 17, 2007, 13:19 GMT

Berlin - Tom Cruise has finished his shooting in Germany for a war movie about a plot to kill Hitler, his production company said on Wednesday.

The Hollywood star plays German resistance hero Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg in Valkyrie.

Work on the movie began in July and will be wrapped up by the end of the month after scenes in which Cruise is not involved are finished, the spokesman said.

Valkyrie portrays the true-life plot to assassinate the Nazi dictator with a bomb on July 20, 1944 at his Wolf's Lair headquarters in what is now Poland.

Filming was dogged by problems involving location issues, injuries to extras on set and objections to Cruise playing a German hero.

German authorities initially refused permission for filming at the Berlin site where Stauffenberg was executed, but later agreed on condition due respect was shown to the resistance leader.

After filming at the Bendler Block was finished, it was discovered that some of the negatives were ruined in development by the chemicals and the scenes had to be re-shot two weeks' later.

Colonel Stauffenberg and three other plotters were summarily shot at the site when Hitler survived the blast and the Nazis raced to suppress the plot before it spread.

Extras playing Wehrmacht soldiers were hurt last month when they fell off a vintage truck after the wooden side fell down as it rounded a bend on a Berlin street.

There were strong objections from some in Germany at the outset to the idea that Cruise should play a German hero, mainly because Cruise is a Scientology devotee and did not look like Stauffenberg, a Catholic.

Cruise is due to appear with Robert Redford in the German capital on October 24 at a special screening of Lions for Lambs, a political thriller about the Afghan war in which they both star.

Afterwards, the two actors will take part in a discussion with the audience about the film, which is due to be released in cinemas in Germany on November 8.

The movie digs behind the news, the politics and a nation divided to explore the human consequences of a complicated war, according to pre-release publicity.