Filming for the movie depicting German hero Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, who will be played by Tom Cruise, is still causing an uproar in Germany as many continue to resist having Tom Cruise play the role of their hero because he's a Scientologist, which Germany doesn't recognize as a church, and actually considers a cult.
Originally the country wasn't going to let the project be filmed at a number of sites, but that has now changed to being barred only from the Bendler Block, the location where Stauffenberg had been shot by the Nazis after attempting to assassinate Hitler.
In Germany, Scientology is viewed as a "totalitarian" group that exploits people, the reason people believe Cruise shouldn't be playing the role.
"I find that Stauffenberg stood for the most noble motives a person can have," Frank Henkel, the general secretary of the Berlin chapter of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, told rolling news channel NTV.
"I consider Tom Cruise as a self-proclaimed ambassador of Scientology inappropriate for the role."
Even with the strong resistance, the project is going on, as director Bryan Singer is continuing to shoot the film, which is scheduled for completion by October 31.
The film is named "Valkyrie" after the name of the actual assassination plot. Co-starring with Cruise will be Kenneth Branagh. The film is tentatively set for an August 8, 2008 release.
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