Cruise film to work around German military site ban

BERLIN, June 29 (Reuters) The makers of a movie about a plot to kill Adolf Hitler said today they had the permits needed to film in Germany despite being officially banned from military sites because its star Tom Cruise is a Scientologist.

Earlier this week, Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung ruled the filmmakers could not shoot at any military sites if Cruise plays hero Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, because of his link to Scientology. Berlin sees it as a cult masquerading as a religion to make money, a view Scientology leaders reject.

But the head of the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin, which will handle filming in Germany, said he had all necessary location permits, including for the so-called ''Bendlerblock'' where Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators were shot after the attempt to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb on July 20, 1944 failed.

The Bendlerblock is located in what is the now the Defence Ministry complex in Berlin. However, part of it is run by the German Resistance Memorial Centre and not the ministry -- and Babelsberg Studios says it will shoot there.

''They have given us permission like they have done for other Stauffenberg films before,'' Carl Woebken, head of Babelsberg studios, told Reuters.

He added that the buildings' official owner, the Finance Ministry, had also given permission. ''From our point of view, everything is ready to go,'' he said.

The film, slated for a 2008 release, will be directed by Bryan Singer and Kenneth Branagh will co-star. It is called ''Valkyrie'' after Operation Valkyrie, the plot's codename.

Sabine Weber, a Scientology spokeswoman in Germany, said German politicians were attacking top Scientologists like Cruise, one of the producers of the film, to get their names in the press.

''I believe that certain politicians from the Christian Democrats use the celebrity status of some of our members to step into the limelight, that's what this is all about. They don't care how much they damage Germany's reputation,'' she said.

REUTERS NY RAI2254