Cameras Roll On Tom Cruise Film

Yesterday, one day before the 63rd anniversary of the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler, filming began in Germany on “Valkyrie,” starring Tom Cruise, as Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, the disillusioned Nazi officer who planted the explosive at a staff meeting, Agence France-Presse reported. A spokeswoman for Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam, outside Berlin, said the crew of the $80 million production, directed by Bryan Singer (“The Usual Suspects”), spent the day south of the city at an unused airport, a former battle site that had been combed for unexploded World War II munitions. The production has been enmeshed in controversy because of Mr. Cruise’s adherence to Scientology, which the German government regards as a dangerous cult; and because of a refusal to allow filming on the memorial site where Stauffenberg was executed a day after the failure of the July 20, 1944, plot. Filming is expected to continue until Oct. 31.