Germans OK Cruise film shoot

The German government will allow the makers of a movie starring Tom Cruise as the country’s most famous anti-Hitler plotter to film at the site where the hero was executed.

Shooting of “Valkyrie,” which has attracted controversy because Cruise is a prominent Scientologist, began in July. At the time, the government didn’t give permission to shoot at the so-called Bendlerblock -- part of the Defense Ministry and now a memorial to the anti-Nazi resistance -- citing concerns over “the dignity of the place.”

Defense Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said Friday that filmmakers had satisfied officials in recent talks that they were “aware of the particular significance” of the former military headquarters.

The movie, directed by Bryan Singer and scheduled for release next year, stars Cruise as Col. Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg -- the aristocratic army officer who was executed after a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944.