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This, to freshen your memories, is the Bryan Singer-directed WWII pic in which the actor/studio head plays a German officer/aristocrat who tries to assassinate Hitler. MGM and United Artists announced this morning they have pushed back the release date again, this time from October 3rd, 2008, to February 13, 2009, which is President’s Day Weekend, in order “to give it the best launch possible”. I hear that when UA execs saw that Pink Panther 2 and The Wolfman moved off the date, they grabbed the holiday weekend that has produced an average of $150 million in box office over the last three President’s Day weekends. But the talk of the town is that the studio can’t figure out how to sell Valkyrie (ex-New Liner Russell Schwartz was recently brought in to help) which is reportedly filled with melodrama (and melodramatic dialogue…) After the collapse of Lions For Lambs, a lot is riding on UA’s 2nd pic and Cruise’s star turn. But I’m told by sources the cost of the pic without marketing is around $90M.
Tom Cruise’s ‘Valkyrie’ Release Delayed
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I thought this would be Cruise’s chance to get a Best Actor nomination. So much for the Oscar campaign.
I’m very upset. This is just silly. Why make the movie if you’re not going to release it. Seriously. I love a great comeback and I guess this just an easy way of letting a career just kind of disappear. Tropic Thunder will be funny, there is no doubt..
New title: Top Secret, part 2
It likely means they think their best launch will be at the Berlin Film Festival, which is quite important not only for the German market but all of Europe.
They may be regarding the US market as secondary and problematic for this at the moment.
When you can’t sell a story about men trying to assassinate Hitler as a suspense thriller, you are in deep, deep, doo-doo.
Let Cruise go back to Paramount, and remake United Artists as a partnership with Dreamworks, which is probably going to leave Paramount.
What the hell’s going on with this movie?
If it a choice between boffo box office or a gold statuette, I think it is a no brainer.
It’s the second delay and also comes after expanding an expensive battle sequence. Guess they were trying to reposition it into an action, or at least war movie, instead of a melodrama. Judging by the decision to dump the movie in February, it wasn’t successful.
I don’t think anybody is too shocked about this, but it doesn’t do anything good for Singer’s new rep for busting budgets or Cruise’s uncharacteristic fumbles on picking projects. Cruise will bounce back. His instincts are too good to do otherwise. Singer, really, really needs to do a few small films and prove to studios that he can stick to a budget.
This picture will be a huge hit because people love a Man in Uniform. But seriously, what is the satanic appeal of a Gestapo uniform? Even before WWII, this “look” has struck such a resonant chord in popular culture. In 1999, Piotr Uklanski issued a fascinating art book called “The Nazis.” It’s 250 pages of photos showing major actors in Nazi regalia. (I bought the book used for twenty bucks, now I find it’s worth almost $200 a copy)
If the marketing of “VALKYRIE” follows the strange, dark glamour of Uklanski’s book, the film will be a huge hit. And yeah, I’m deadly serious.
http://www.amazon.com/Piotr-Uklanski-Nazis/dp/3905509229/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207610797&sr=1-1
cruise is a real freakshow its what i think everytime i see him–freakshow–looks like another movie i cant wait to not go see
To anyone that thinks a February release date is “dumping” the film, please go and research grosses for the month for the past five years.
There’s gold in them thar hills for the right movies.
Singer blew it with Superman Returns and this move does not bode well for his reputation. He was on top of his game with Usual Suspects through X-Men 2 but rumor has it the success went to his (already bloated) head. I smell a stinker…
The newly released trailer is great. I hope they pull this off and market it correctly. The only downside is that a February release almost guarantees it won’t be considered for any awards, even if it deserves to be.
Yeah, but the problem is that a movie with Tom Cruise playing a Nazi isn’t exactly date material. Sure, it’s President’s Day weekend, but it’s also VALENTINE’S DAY weekend. I know if my husband said, “Hey, honey, let’s go see a movie about Nazis trying to kill Hitler” on Valentine’s Day, I’d divorce him…
Dear Jason,
Is Valkyrie a RomCom? Is it Science Fiction?
Dumped!
Please do your own research before suggesting it to others.
‘German Cruise’: What the hell are you blabbing about? Do you mean the ‘new’ trailer that was released 5 months ago with Lions for Lambs?
If anything, that list shows I was right hotshot – a great variety of genres can open big on that weekend.
Thanks for making my point.
The problem with the movie is that Tom Cruise doesn’t have the gravitas to pull off this role. Anyone remember his laughable performance in Taps when he was also dressed up in miltary wear? He comes off too much like a little boy wearing his grandpa’s military duds. He lacks any kind of authority so him playing this kind of role is why everyone who’s seen it says it’s pure camp.
Wolfman & PinkPanther…sounds like Valkyrie would be in good company…but, instead of a President’s Day weekend of $150m, realistically, no-talent Cruise, Hitler and no other name actors (Cruise hates the talent competish) $1m @ 1500 theaters is far more likely…in other words, another bomb (pun intended…)
Just for the sake of a little more accuracy: Tom Cruise is not wearing a Gestapo uniform in the picture on DHD. It is supposed to be a standard German officer’s uniform from World War II with the claret-red stripe on the pants indicating the officer has been posted to The General Staff. Actually, though, the “field gray” shade of the uniform Tom Cruise is wearing is too light in comparison to the real thing and the pants were almost always matching to the tunic and very, very rarely were black. Finally, a small correction for “Can’t Take It Anymore”: Tom Cruise is not playing a Nazi. The character he is playing, Colonel Count Klaus Philip Schenk von Stauffenberg, was a devout Roman Catholic who was utterly repelled and sickened by Nazi ideology. Von Stauffenberg was one of the leaders (but not THE leader) of the last group of military officers and civilians who attempted to asassainate Hitler. Their attempt came closest to success but there were at least 6 other serious attempts by others. So — not every German by any means was a Nazi back then,
Am I crazy or does this sound like the most ridiculous premise for a film ever?
Why in the world would anyone spend $90 MILLION, Cruise or no Cruise, on a film about a historical figure plotting to assassinate a dictator that everybody knows committed suicide?
….Not quite sure why a studio would greenlight a film centered around failure. Would you make a film about attempts on Lincoln’s life pre-Fords Theater? This is just silly.
Regardless of the release date, I’m World War II’d out–and I think “Max” (with John Cusack) from several years back pushed the Nazi What If? genre about as far as it could…
To respond to “Layne”, as much as I personally may not care much for Tom Cruise because of his Scientology beliefs (Boy, if you want to talk about a bizarre, wacky creed and set of beliefs, well, that’s another blog), I’m planning to cut Tom Cruise some slack in this instance because the “premise” of this film — or at least what should be the premise given the true historical facts — makes for great drama: Imagine a devoutly Christian man who literally has taken an oath before God (as all German officers were required to do at some point) to obey to the letter and spirit all orders from his superior officers — with his ultimate military superior being a completely ungodly man who, facing complete and utter defeat, is prepared to take all of Germany and the lives of millions of men, women, and children down with him. Makes for conflict doesn’t it? And makes for conflict, doesn’t it, that this same devoutly Christian man struggles in his heart with knowing that he has to commit the truly great sin of murder to stop even more and greater sins? So — sounds to me that this was a gutsy but good thing for Mr. Cruise to take a roll of the dice on.
Eewk, to show how clueless you are, the script for Valkyrie doesn’t even mention Cruise’s character’s religion.
But does he dance in his tighty whities?
I’m mostly curious about Bryan Singer’s fascination with Nazis. Anyone have the over/under on how many Nazi pictures Singer is going to make in his career?
If this one bombs my bet is 2.
To “Can’t Take It Anymore”: Please reread what I wrote about the premise of the film or “what SHOULD BE the premise given the true historical facts” (emphasis added). In other words, if the script does in fact omit any mention of the religious convictions that were motivating von Stauffenberg, as well as the moral dilemma facing him in having to commit murder, well then Messrs. Cruise, Singer and whoever the credited screenwriters turn out to be have simply gutted a great historical event of its reason for occurring. And if that’s the case, then down deep the movie may turn out to be shallow. But for now, though, I’m still prepared to cut Messrs. Cruise, Singer, and the rest some slack because it is possible that they may have been able to dramatise the moral dilemma von Stauffenberg was facing without reference to his Christianity (something Mr. Cruise, as a fallen away Roman Catholic, may not personally want to cast in a favorable light). If it turns out that the film makers have even gutted the movie of this moral dilemma and replaced it with something along the lines of, “We’re losing the war so Hitler’s got to go”, then the film makers deserve to be completely and utterly scorned and I’ll be first in line to throw verbal brickbats at them.