Tom Cruise's obsession with Scientology just moved from being blog-fodder and material for stand-up comedians, to a far more pressing problem.
The German government has barred the shooting on location of a film about a plot to kill Adolf Hitler, Entertainment Weekly and other media outlets report, because of Cruise's connections with the Church of Scientology.
The film, to be directed by Bryan Singer and to co-star Kenneth Branagh, was planned to be filmed at various German military sites. Cruise is one of the producers.
Cruise was slated to play Count Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg who, by way of opposing the Nazi treatment of Jews, on July 20, 1944, planted a bomb hidden in a suitcase in the Fuhrer's famed Wolf's Lair, the East Prussian military headquarters.
The bomb exploded on schedule and killed four of Hitler's military advisors. A heavy table behind which the Fuhrer was seated at the time however saved his life.
Von Stauffenberg was arrested by the Gestapo and after a show-trial, hanged to death with piano wire.
Media outlets quote Germany's defense ministry spokesman Harald Kammerbauer as saying the filmmakers 'will not be allowed to film at German military sites if Count Stauffenberg is played by Tom Cruise, who has publicly professed to being a member of the Scientology cult.
'In general, the Bundeswehr (German military) has a special interest in the serious and authentic portrayal of the events of July 20, 1944 and Stauffenberg's person,' Kammerbauer said.
Germany does not recognise Scientology as a religion, and has argued that the cult masquerades as a religion in order to make money.
One of the main areas of interest for the filmmakers will be the 'Bendlerblock' memorial inside the defense ministry complex in Berlin, where Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators hatched the plot. The failed conspirators were later executed at the same spot.
The film, titled Valkyrie (after Operation Valkyrie, the code-name of Stauffenberg's plot) is slated for a 2008 release.
Photograph: Getty Images
