valkyrie finalnotes

7/30/2019 Valkyrie FINALNotes

1/32

Release Date: December 26, 2008

Running Time: 120 Minutes

Rating: PG13

Los Angeles

Publicity Contact

42WestSusan CicconeIrina Vaysman310.477.4442

[email protected]@42West.net

New York

Publicity Contact

42WestAmanda Lundberg

Tom Piechura212.277.7555

[email protected]

MGM Studios

Contact

Kristin BorellaKaren Paul

Dayna DItria310.449.3118

[email protected]@mgm.com
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


2/32

[email protected]

MAIN TITLES

Directed byBryan Singer

Written byChristopher MCQuarrie& Nathan Alexander

Produced byBryan Singer

Christopher MCQuarrie

Produced byGilbert Adler

Executive ProducersChris Lee

Ken Kamins

Executive ProducersDaniel M. SnyderDwight C. Schar

Mark Shapiro

Director of PhotographyNewton Thomas Sigel, ASC

Production DesignersLilly Kilvert

Patrick Lumb

Edited byJohn Ottman

Music byJohn Ottman

Tom Cruise

Valkyrie

Kenneth Branagh

Bill Nighy

Tom Wilkinson

Carice van Houten

Thomas Kretschmannand

2
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


3/32

Terence Stamp

Eddie IzzardKevin R. McNally

Jamie ParkerChristian Berkel

David BamberTom HollanderDavid Schofield

Kenneth CranhamHalina ReijnCasting by

Roger Mussenden, C.S.A.

Co-ProducersNathan AlexanderHenning Molfenter

Carl Woebcken

Christoph Fisser

Costume DesignerJoanna Johnston

Visual Effects SupervisorRichard R. Hoover

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picturesand

United Artistspresent

A Bad Hat Harry production

An Achte Babelsberg Film GmbH co-production

A Bryan Singer Film

3


4/32

.

The Fhrers promises of peace and prosperity have fallen by the wayside, leaving in their wake a path ofdestruction. The outrages committed by Hitlers SS are a stain on the honor of the German Army.

There is widespread disgust in the officer corps toward the crimes committed by the Nazis the murder ofcivilians, the torture and starvation of prisoners, the mass execution of Jews. My duty as an officer is nolonger to save my country, but to save human lives.

I cannot find one general in a position to confront Hitler with the courage to do it. Ive found myselfsurrounded by men unwilling or unable to face the truth: Hitler is not only the archenemy of the entireworld, but the archenemy of Germany.

A change must be made

- Tom Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg in Valkyrie

About the Production

Based on a stunning true story, Tom Cruise stars as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg in thesuspense film VALKYRIE, a chronicle of the daring and ingenious plot to eliminate one of the most evil

tyrants the world has ever known.

A proud military man, Colonel Stauffenberg is a loyal officer who loves his country but has been

forced to watch with horror as the rise of Hitler has led to the events of World War II. He has continued his

military service, all the while hoping someone will find a way to stop Hitler before Europe and Germany are

destroyed. Realizing time is running out, Stauffenberg decides he must take action himself, and in 1942, on

his own initiative, attempts to persuade senior commanders in the East to confront and overthrow Hitler.

Then in 1943, while recovering from injuries suffered in combat, Stauffenberg joins forces with the German

Resistance, a long-existing civilian anti-Hitler conspiracy comprised of men hidden inside the highest

reaches of power. Armed with a cunning strategy to use Hitlers own emergency plan to stabilize the

government in the event of his demise Operation Valkyrie and turn that plan on its head to remove those

in power and cripple Hitlers regime, these men plot to assassinate the dictator and overthrow his Nazi

government.

With everything in place, and with the future of the world, the fate of millions, and the lives of his

wife and children hanging in the balance, Stauffenberg is thrust from being one of many who oppose Hitler


5/32

to being the one who must kill Hitler himself.

Director Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men, Superman Returns) re-teams with Academy

Award-winning The Usual Suspects screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie to bring to life the story of the

men who led the operation to assassinate Hiltler. In addition to Cruise, the films acclaimed cast includes

Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Carice van Houten, Thomas Kretschmann, Eddie Izzard,

Christian Berkel and Terence Stamp.

Valkyrie is produced by Bryan Singer, Christopher McQuarrie and Gilbert Adler. McQuarrie co-

wrote the original screenplay with Nathan Alexander, who also serves as co-producer. The executive

producers are Chris Lee, Ken Kamins, Daniel M. Snyder, Dwight C. Schar, and Mark Shapiro.

The film was shot in Germany at various locations where many of the actual events occurred,

including the historic Bendlerblock. Recreating the atmosphere of urgency and paranoia inside the German

Resistance is a team that includes Singers frequent collaborators Newton Thomas Sigel (Superman

Returns, X2, X-Men) as director of photography and editor/composer John Ottman (Superman Returns, X2)

as well as production designers Lilly Kilvert (two-time Oscar-nominee for The Last Samurai and Legends

of the Fall) and Patrick Lumb (The Omen, Flight of the Phoenix) and costume designer Joanna Johnston

(Munich, Saving Private Ryan).

5


6/32

The Story Begins:

How a trip to Berlin set Bryan Singer, Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander on a quest to bring the

German Resistance out of the shadows

Bryan Singer began his filmmaking career with the highly acclaimed suspense thriller The Usual

Suspects and went on to bring the comic book worlds of the X-Men and Superman to the screen with a

dynamic originality. His direction is known for its edge-of-your-seat tension and gripping storytelling. But

with Valkyrie, Singer brings those cinematic skills to a completely different kind of story a true tale of

extreme daring from inside the Nazi regime.

Although the events and heroes depicted in Valkyrie are real, they share much in common with the

kinds of stories and characters that have always drawn Singers attention. Notes Chris Lee, an executive

producer on the film and a long-time collaborator with Singer: What always sets Bryans movies apart are

the complexity of their characters, the emotions, and the absence of complete black and white, all married

with a sense of pacing and action. Bryans ability to balance lots of intriguing characters started with The

Usual Suspects and continued with the X-Men movies. Now it contributes something very powerful to the

mosaic of remarkable individuals who make up Valkyrie.

The story of Valkyrie was brought to Singers attention by screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, a

previous collaborator who won the Academy Award for his intricately constructed screenplay for The Usual

Suspects. In the winter of 2002, McQuarrie was in Berlin doing research for another project when, during a

tour of the city, he came across Stauffenbergstrasse, the street named after German Resistance fighter

Claus von Stauffenberg. There he found the Bendlerblock, the site of a monument to the German

Resistance that McQuarrie found profoundly moving. Berlin is a city of monuments, McQuarries guide told

him, but this is the only monument to any German who served in World War II.

Of course, I wanted to know more, says McQuarrie. Here was a very complex, remarkable story

that most people outside of Germany had never heard before. It was a story that revealed not all Germans

supported Hitler, that there were all kinds of resistors, including those in the military, and some who were

willing to stand up and say no. The more I learned, the more I knew it would make a fantastic movie.

And so it began. Continuing his research, McQuarrie was drawn in by Stauffenberg and his key

role in planning the July 20, 1944, assassination plot against Hitler including his ultimately carrying the

bomb intended to change the world. McQuarrie became increasingly intrigued as to why some men are

driven to acts of such extreme daring and profound conscience when their backs are against the wall. He

began to see the story not just as a tale of mounting suspense, but one about the wages of courage and the

way courage operates under extreme fire.

A theme I am always attracted to is that of someone who is forced to step outside their reality and,

by doing so, becoming a far bigger person, McQuarrie says. Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators were all

men who had wives and children and established reputations. They knew going in they had little chance of

success, and they understood if they failed it would mean certain destruction. Thats what we wanted to

honor with this story.

McQuarrie tapped writing partner Nathan Alexander to begin the intensive task of researching

Stauffenbergs complicated life and, most important, the precise machinations of the plot to assassinate

Hitler and replace his authoritarian government with a shrewdly planned coup. As Alexander began poring

through books, articles, court transcripts, and archival footage, he became increasingly excited about the

potential to tell the story in a fresh and compelling way. Stauffenberg is a fascinating character from the

6


7/32

outset, this charismatic German officer with one eye and one hand, says Alexander. The more I learned

about him, the more fascinated I became by who he was and how he ultimately came to do what he did.

Initially, McQuarrie and Alexander allowed the research to drive the narrative of Valkyrie. We

didnt set out with an agenda, says McQuarrie. We literally started by following the facts. We increasingly

understood this was a controversial story, in that there remain many different opinions about whom each of

these men were from Stauffenberg to Beck to Olbricht and what they each wanted. So the approach

was to tell the story as truthfully as possible in two hours while conveying the pressure and suspense to a

contemporary audience. In the midst of telling a gripping story, we wanted to really get the spirit that drove

these men.

As they wrote, the duo developed a unique process: Alexander would write an extremely detailed

draft focusing strictly on the historical timeline, then McQuarrie would in turn write a draft zeroing in on

maximizing the dramatic effect. Wed go back and forth between these two poles until the pendulum rested

in balance between the two, says McQuarrie.

Ultimately, they found that the drama and tension of the story were inherent in the truth of what

happened during this mission. The only significant changes McQuarrie and Alexander made to the facts of

the story were compressing the timeline to fit a sleek, two-hour screenplay structure and compressing the

number of characters involved; although some 200 people were hanged for their involvement and around

700 were arrested in direct connection with the July 20 th Plot, a tightly-woven film narrative could only follow

a handful of key players.

McQuarrie and Alexander did face a unique challenge in sustaining the storys suspense for

modern audiences after all, Hitlers ultimate fate is well known. They discovered, however, that the

bombing was only half the story. The aftermath and the execution of Operation Valkyrie was filled with so

many surprises from fatal hesitation to soaring bravery that it would keep the anxiety accelerating.

The tension in the story is anchored on the affection we develop for these characters, says

McQuarrie. The suspense lies in witnessing what each and every one of these men goes through in

choosing to join the plot, and the decisions they each make in the course of its fateful execution.

While McQuarrie and Alexander developed a deep respect for those involved in the German

Resistance, they also wrestled with how these seemingly principled men of honor served under Hitler in the

first place, especially knowing the atrocities of the concentration camps. They note that many of those in the

military did not know how inhumane things would become under Hitler until it was too late. These men also

took their commitment to the German people which had been sealed long before Hitler came to power

very seriously. Many of those in the resistance wrestled with how to reconcile their oath with the urgent

need to overthrow their countrys leader in a time of war.

This was a culture where people truly believed that when you gave your word it was for life, and

these men had all sworn an oath of loyalty to Hitler, says McQuarrie. Yet they ultimately reasoned that

Hitler broke his oath to the country with the atrocities he and his ministers were perpetrating. They realized

they had to do something for the sake of a different future even if it meant being vilified as traitors by their

fellow countrymen. It was an agonizing moral dilemma.

Many of the militarys best and brightest hailed from the aristocratic class and were lifelong patriots

who had joined the army out of a sense of service during World War I or, like Claus von Stauffenberg in

1926, well before the rise of Hitler. And many of these men were questioning Hitlers policies by the mid-

1930s, as the countrys military aggression and violence against Jews and others expanded. There was a

strong feeling during that time that an aristocrats mission should be to serve their country and the people,

7


8/32

which is why so many including Stauffenberg, Tresckow and Olbricht joined the military, says

McQuarrie. But many of these men were opposed to the Nazi agenda early on and became increasingly

disillusioned with Hitler as the war progressed and they started to learn what was happening to the Jews

and the Russians.

The heinous treatment of Jews, Russian civilians, and POWs across Europe became a turning

point for many, including Stauffenberg. Bryan Singer says, It was surprising to me to learn from my own

research that many members of the military resistance were affected early on and very heavily by the

treatment of the Jews and the truth of mass executions. It is what prompted them to feel they had to do

something about it no matter the cost.

Another key to the screenplays structure would be revealing the vital importance of Operation

Valkyrie, the national emergency plan Hitler himself had established to protect his government from civil

unrest if he was cut off or killed. The order called for Germanys Reserve Army to take command of key

government installations until order could be restored a fact the conspirators cleverly attempted to use to

their advantage. By secretly altering this intricate plan, the resistance hoped to assassinate Hitler and take

Germany back from the Nazis by installing their own government in the ensuing chaos.

We wanted to make clear that assassinating Adolf Hitler wasnt enough, because that wouldnt

guarantee his Nazi government would fall. They also had to find a way to topple his regime, says

McQuarrie. Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators used Operation Valkyrie to make it look as though Hitlers

closest inner circle had killed him and was trying to take over in Berlin. Posing as the legitimate

government, the resistance would quickly mobilize the Reserve Army to arrest Hitlers cronies and seize

control of the government.

If all had gone off without a hitch, if the plan hadnt unraveled in so many small but devastating

ways, could Operation Valkyrie have succeeded? I think we can only speculate as to whether it might have

worked, says McQuarrie. No one can say what exactly would have happened because there were so

many different factors at work. But there is evidence to suggest that it could have succeeded. And in the

end, I think the conspirators achieved what they had hoped for most: they had shown the world there were

Germans willing to make a stand.

Bryan Singer Takes on a True Story

Many might view Valkyrie as a departure for Singer, but those who know his work best see

thematic similarities running through the film. Producer Gilbert Adler, who made Superman Returns with

Singer, says, Stauffenberg is, in a way, a real-life counterpart to what we look for in cinematic heroes: an

ordinary man moved to extraordinary actions. Certainly, he was very human and flawed, but I think Bryan

brings out that Stauffenbergs remarkable strength was all grounded in very real things: his dedication to his

country, to his family, and especially to what was right.

Equally important to Singer was capturing the overall atmosphere of Nazi Germany. Bryan is not

only a filmmaker but a real history buff, says Chris Lee, and I think those two great passions come through

in the level of detail in each frame as well as in the detail in character and emotion.

For Singer, Valkyrie was a chance not only to take on his first true story but to also explore a period

in time that has held a dark fascination for him since childhood, when his Jewish background made him

acutely aware of the horrors perpetrated by Hitler and the Nazi government of Germany. Ive always had

an interest in exploring the Third Reich, he says. I touched upon it in a film I did based on a Stephen King

8


9/32

novella (Apt Pupil), and again in the first X-Men with the concentration camp scene. But Valkyrie was a

chance to segue into a realistic portrayal of that world through an extraordinary true story about a leader

who was destroying a country and much of the world and the men who decided to try to stop it.

The very fact that a German resistance existed and that it even reached into the highest ranks of

the military was something that had long heartened Singer and reminded him of the courage that can

come out of basic human decency. At a very young age, I learned there were Germans who had tried to kill

Hitler, he says. I didnt know specifically about Stauffenberg and Olbricht, but I had heard about a bomb in

a briefcase, and to me that was always a big deal, to understand that all Germans werent Nazis. It would

be devastating at such a young age to believe that the whole of a country could be filled with such hate, and

it was good to know there were a few who tried to stand against it.

Singer began doing his own research, reading extensively about every aspect of life during the

Third Reich. One of the first things I did was read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer,

which is an extraordinary book, he says. It should really be mandatory reading for anyone trying to

understand how an enlightened society can transform very quickly into a killing machine. It goes into the

personalities and machinations of Hitler, Gring, Himmler, etc., and it helped give me a deeper

understanding of the world the conspirators operated inside. Before I made this movie I needed to

understand not just the role of the people trying to remove Hitler, but why Hitler happened in the first place.

Singer also met with a number of people who could give him an inside perspective. We had

private meetings with members of the Stauffenberg family, he says. On the other side, we met with Hitlers

former bodyguard, who, I believe, was the last person to leave the bunker where Hitler committed suicide.

These meetings were done specifically to bring new perspectives and ideas to the material. They were very

informative, and sometimes transformational in terms of what we learned.

All of this translated into Singers stylistic approach to the film, which would mix nuanced period

details of the Third Reich with the lightning pacing and visual dynamism of a modern thriller. Singer says,

We werent making a documentary. The important thing was getting the truth of the story across in the

most engaging way.

To this end, Singer made the decision early on to allow each member of the films international cast

to use his or her own accent. Ive navigated through international accents in different ways before,

sometimes altering them, sometimes leaving them, he says. But with Valkyrie, I had a phenomenal cast

playing a fascinating, and sometimes terrifying, group of characters, and I felt it would be stronger to have

them use their own natural dialects. When the film begins, youre transported to this world of German

soldiers in the mid-1940s, and the thing that draws you into that world are the characters these proud

military men who saw that they had a monstrous leader and felt they had to get rid of him. The first priority

was allowing these characters to come through in strong and very human performances.

Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg / Tom Cruise

At the center of Valkyrie is Claus von Stauffenberg, the charismatic aristocrat who would ultimately

risk everything to carry a bomb into Hitlers private conference room. But just who was Stauffenberg? After

spending months intensively researching his life, screenwriters McQuarrie and Alexander agree he will

always remain a somewhat mysterious figure, having been cut down in his prime at the age of 36.

Its impossible to fully know Stauffenberg hes been left an enigmatic character in history, says

McQuarrie. Over the years many people have laid claim to Stauffenberg as a poster child or scapegoat for

9


10/32

various things, but I think in the end all we can do is look at him for his actions, for the risks he took and

what he attempted to do.

Descended from 700 years of German nobility, Stauffenberg grew up in Bavaria as part of an elite

family. Artistically inclined, he loved architecture, music, and poetry, but in the 1920s became a military

officer who would soon be noted both for his irascible streak of individualism and his unquestionable heroics.

He was said to have been singled out by his superiors for possessing a genius for military organization and

logistics, and he rapidly rose in the ranks.

At the beginning of 1943, while fighting in Africa with the Tenth Panzer Division, Stauffenberg

sustained severe injuries, losing an eye, his right hand, and several fingers on his left hand. Despite these

terrible wounds, he was named Chief of Staff in the General Army Office in the fall of 1943. By then, he had

already joined the resistance. On July 1, 1944, Stauffenberg became Chief of the General Staff of the

Reserve Army a job that would take him into direct personal meetings with Hitler. He suddenly found

himself in the perfect position to make an assassination attempt on the Fhrer.

The historian Annedore Leber wrote of Stauffenberg: [He was] the prototype of those young

higher officers who, though their own future careers were never in doubt, nevertheless had the will to take

action. They acted from the officers sense of responsibility to his troops, the citizens sense of responsibility

to his people. Even the Gestapo officials who took part in the investigation of the events of July 20 felt a

trace of his spirit. They talked of Stauffenbergs yearning

This is also what struck McQuarrie and Alexander about Stauffenberg. Whatever riddles might

remain about his life, there is little doubt he was a man of great devotion and ethics. One of the main things

I took away is that Stauffenberg was driven by a deep feeling of obligation to serve his fellow man, says

Alexander. We cant know the exact moment he first had grave doubts about Hitler, but once he realized

what was going on behind the scenes he clearly believed it was his duty as a German and a human being to

take on the responsibility of removing Hitler.

Stauffenberg is a real-life hero, but in the context of a movie hes also an incredible character to

portray. Its a daunting role, but the filmmakers felt Tom Cruise was the perfect actor to take it on.

Stauffenberg was an intense, charismatic individual, so we needed an actor who could really

portray that, says director Singer. I was really excited when Tom came on board. Very few actors are able

to pull off those hero roles, but Tom completely does -- he's a highly skilled actor and has such a strong

screen presence. Tom also had a passion for this project from the beginning and he believed, like I do, that

it's a story that should be told. He was an important part of getting the movie made, and he and his

performance will be a really important part of bringing the story to the world.

Before taking on the part Cruise hadnt known that much about Stauffenberg, but to prepare he

learned as much about Stauffenberg as he could, and his research and attention to detail quickly showed

him what an impressive man he was.

When I first read the script, it was incredibly compelling on many different levels, Cruise says,

from a historical perspective but also as a great thriller. I was fascinated by the conspiracy. It was dynamic

and suspenseful from the opening to the end. Then finding out it was based on a true story its even more

mind-blowing. That combination made it very interesting for me.

The opportunity to work with Bryan Singer is another thing that attracted Cruise to the project.

Bryan is someone Ive always wanted to work with, he says. I think hes an extraordinary filmmaker.

Bryan is someone who even as a kid was making World War II movies. He had an obvious fascination with

this time period, and with that kind of interest and dedication you could feel all of us coming together and

10


11/32

saying, Okay, lets make this.

Cruise was incredibly moved by what took place inside the German Resistance. To experience it

from Stauffenbergs perspective and see what these men risked not just their own lives but their families

lives its tremendous, he says. Its amazing to see someone under such tremendous pressure stand up

for what he felt was right, to have that kind of integrity in those circumstances.

The actor also found that Stauffenbergs heroism also hit home in a personal way. You think,

How would I handle that?, and thats what makes it very powerful. Its a timeless movie because it deals

with things that are timeless: integrity, heroism, cowardice, compromise. What are you willing to stand up

for or not do anything about? These are questions that we as human beings evaluate in our own lives.

Ultimately, I dont think Stauffenberg saw himself as a hero, he continues. He saw it as the

correct thing to do, to try to end the war and spare human lives. Stauffenberg is someone who really always

drove himself towards a higher moral ground and searched for moral correctness and rightness for himself,

and he wanted that for his country. He was one of the few that had the courage to stand up to Hitler and

even be willing to sacrifice his own life to try and get that done.

To play Stauffenberg, one of the challenges Cruise had to face was Stauffenbergs physical

scarring from his injuries in North Africa, including wearing an eye patch. The eye patch was very difficult,

he says. At first it threw my balance off, and I would imagine the kind of physical discomfort he had to live

with. It was also challenging from a performance point of view, how to communicate as an actor with part of

your face gone.

Wearing Stauffenbergs uniform also proved difficult. Putting on that uniform and looking at the

world from that perspective was disturbing, he says. I didnt like it at all. It definitely changes your

viewpoint. Then looking at it from Stauffenbergs viewpoint and what it meant to him to wear that uniform

and the conflict he had it helped me very much.

In addition to the real-life aspects of his character, shooting in Berlin was very powerful for Cruise,

as well as the entire cast and crew. Its hard to describe what it was like standing there at the

Benderblock, he says. It affected all of us to be there and think about what had actually happened where

we were standing.

Tom brings an incredible intensity, poise, and focus to the role, and more than anything, he brings

the charisma I think the character required, says McQuarrie. When Tom Cruise walks into a room, you

have a sense of the charisma Stauffenberg might have had. What Tom also brings is his experience as a

filmmaker and storyteller. The script only got better, the character only became clearer, our understanding

of the history and our understanding of where we were in this universe, it all only became clearer as a result

of Tom being involved.

In the end, with all the hard work that went into the film and the incredible experience of making it,

Cruise is very pleased with the end result. The film is a ticking clock, he says. This is a dynamic

suspense thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat all the way through. Im proud that we got the

film made, and Im very proud of what everyone accomplished.

Nina Schenk Grfin von Stauffenberg / Carice van Houten

When she married handsome, aristocratic Claus von Stauffenberg in 1933, Nina von Stauffenberg,

a baroness, could not have known the sacrifices she would ultimately make for her beloved husband and

country. Though she was never directly involved in the plot against Hitler, she and her family were among

11


12/32

her husbands strongest inspirations and she remained his confidante and unwavering supporter throughout

the build-up to the assassination attempt.

Ultimately, Nina would be one of the few to survive the events of July 20. She was imprisoned in

the Ravensbrck concentration camp (where she gave birth to her fifth child with Claus), then after the war

she and her family built new lives in West Germany where she lived until her death in 2006 at the age of 92.

While researching the screenplay, McQuarrie and Alexander wanted to determine whether or not

Nina knew what Claus was about to do that fateful summer. It became pretty clear that she did know and

supported his plan in every way that she could, says Alexander. Nina wasnt involved in the details, but I

think you still have to look at her as an important member of the conspiracy. She had as much to lose as

any of them. Later, when we spoke to members of her family, we were left with the impression that while

Nina and Claus never spoke directly about the plot, in a sense it was all they talked about. Their love story

is crucial because at its center lies what was truly at stake for Stauffenberg: his children and the future of

Germany.

Playing Nina is Carice van Houten, the stunning Dutch actress who came to global attention with

her award-winning role in Paul Verhoevens thriller Black Book. We were all immediately struck with Carice

when we saw Black Book and said, Thats Nina, says McQuarrie. She has these scenes where she says

very little yet completely fills the screen with her presence. Shes an extraordinarily generous actress.

What intrigued van Houten was the chance to bring a womans perspective to the heroics of the

July 20th plot. I loved that in the midst of this exciting story of conspiracy, you also see Claus and Ninas

family life, she says. Nina might not have a lot of words in this story, but she brings a lot of feelings. Van

Houten also sees Nina as revealing a different face of courage and commitment. I think she had to find her

own strength to show this unconditional love and give her husband the freedom to do this incredible thing

without fear, she says. Nina understood what they were doing was not only about trying to save their

family but also the country and the world.

Major-General Henning von Tresckow / Kenneth Branagh

Today, Henning von Tresckow is renowned as one of the most driven and unrelenting enemies of

Hitler inside the German armed forces. A member of a noble Prussian family with a long military history, he

was considered a brilliant strategist with a long record of distinguished service in Germany. But as early as

1938, Tresckow began seeking out other military insiders as well as civilians who opposed Hitler to start

exploring means of overthrowing the government. He is perhaps best known for his attempt, seen in

Valkyrie, to smuggle captured British adhesive mines (clams) disguised as two bottles of Cointreau onto

Hitlers airplane.

Tresckows role in the screenplay was key. Before Stauffenberg became involved, Tresckow was

the engine driving the military resistance to Hitler and it was important that be emphasized, says Alexander.

His beliefs and ideals help shape the heart of the movie, as he always maintained it didnt matter if the

conspirators failed, what mattered was that they try.

Playing Tresckow is four-time Academy Award nominee Kenneth Branagh. Branagh has this

incredible bearing that really sets the tone of all thats at stake in carrying out the plot to overthrow Hitler,

says Chris Lee. It was the script that lured Branagh, himself a highly accomplished screenwriter. My palms

were sweating with excitement over what might happen next, he recalls of his first reading. And the

characters, including Tresckow, were so compelling and hypnotic. It reveals a secret part of World War II

12


13/32

that there were those who were philosophically, intellectually, and militarily in disagreement with Hitler and

that, though they were often suppressed, their voices were there.

Branagh was impressed with the distinctive tone of Valkyrie. Chris McQuarrie and Nathan

Alexander have a very strong, naturalistic style of dialogue and Bryan Singer was very attuned to that

naturalism, he says. What he wanted from the performances is that these men be human beings. Not

archetypes or stock characters, but flesh and blood heroes represented as truthfully as possible.

Branagh was also thrilled to be a part of an incredibly accomplished international cast. The

strength and depth of this cast made it a real privilege to be a part of it, he concludes. But its no surprise.

The story is so strong and Bryan Singer is such a terrific director, its no wonder so many very talented

people joined up.

General Friedrich Olbricht / Bill Nighy

Like Henning von Tresckow, Friedrich Olbricht was a military hero who had been awarded the Iron

Cross and served as leader of the General Army Office in the Army Leadership High Command. By 1940,

he had joined the resistance and was secretly working to overthrow Hitler. It was Olbricht who was given

the daunting responsibility of putting Operation Valkyrie into motion on July 20. On the eve of his death,

Olbricht would write to his son-in-law: I will be dying for a good cause; of that I am firmly convinced.

Should we now make out that we have sinned? No, we have dared to do the utmost for Germany.

In the film, Olbrichts moment of hesitation under fire becomes one of several twists of fate that

threaten the plan to use Operation Valkyrie to overthrow Hitlers government. Yet, Olbricht remains a highly

sympathetic character.

We wanted to avoid making Olbricht into the fall guy, says McQuarrie. He was a human being

who had reasons for acting the way he did and we felt it would have been crass to use him merely as a

device. It was real challenge to do this, and the casting of Bill Nighy completed it because he is such an

eminently sympathetic person and he was really able to convey Olbrichts extreme stress and anxiety.

Olbricht is brought to life by Golden Globe winner Bill Nighy, whose alternately comic and nuanced

performances in such films as Love Actually, The Girl in the Caf, The Constant Gardener and Notes on a

Scandal have made him one of todays most diverse and sought-after screen actors. Nighy says he found

the story of Valkyrie, astonishing in itself but also in its dramatization. It worked on several levels, not least

of all as a nail-biting thriller, all made even more fascinating by dint of the fact that its true.

Nighy was intrigued to learn just how deep the resistance to Hitler actually ran among some

German officers like Olbricht. People like Olbricht were deeply ashamed to be associated with this buffoon

and they also deeply grieved the loss of men caused by these reckless military campaigns, he observes.

But it is one thing to observe and complain about it, and another to decide to do something about it, which

is an extraordinarily brave thing given how efficiently the Nazis dispatched their enemies.

As for Olbricht himself, Nighy wanted to reveal his finest qualities as well as the questioning nature

that might have fatefully delayed Operation Valkyrie. The challenge for me was to show an honorable,

brave, clever man who, at just one single point, is undermined by the situation to the point where he cant

quite act. It was important to me to show a great amount of respect to him and to give his situation dignity

and humanity, says the actor.

For the filmmakers, Nighy was an inspired piece of casting. Were used to seeing him in lighter

parts, but here he plays a hard-edged man with a hint of real vulnerability. I have to admit the first time I

13


14/32

saw him in uniform as Olbricht I had chills. He really became the part, says Gilbert Adler.

General Ludwig Beck / Terence Stamp

Though he served as Chief of Staff for the German Army from 1933 to 1938, General Ludwig Beck

quickly became an open and unusually vocal critic of Hitlers military strategies. Following his conscience,

he wrote a memorandum taking a strong stand against Hitlers policy of aggression and resigned his post.

Unsuccessful in a plan to get other military higher-ups to resign in a group and thus launch a coup dtat, he

then began developing an underground network of military and civilian agents who helped to form the

central German opposition. It is believed that Beck would have been head of state if a coup had succeeded.

Beck recognized Hitler very early on for what he was, says McQuarrie. He disagreed with his

policies and chose not be a part of his Army. He became something of an advisor and counselor to those

who were dealing with a crisis of faith, who were struggling with the oath they had taken to their leader. And

a great many of those people who came to him for counsel ended up as members of the plot to remove

Hitler from power.

To portray Beck, the filmmakers chose Academy Award nominee Terence Stamp, known for

decades of richly layered performances (and most recently a comic turn in Get Smart). Stamp says that

Beck interested him because he was one of the first people to not only see that Hitler was a lunatic, but to

do something about it.

Stamp was also drawn in by the films extraordinary ensemble. Every one of these actors has

really earned their spurs, he says. Theyve all done every kind of role, theyre totally confident, and the

casting was spot on.

General Friedrich Fromm / Tom Wilkinson

Claus von Stauffenbergs superior throughout the events of 1944 was Friedrich Fromm, the

Commander in Chief of the Reserve Army. Though there is little doubt that Fromm knew men beneath him

were planning an assassination of Hitler, he remained silent and did nothing to stop it. Yet when the

conspiracy failed, it was Fromm who betrayed Stauffenberg and the others.

In order to portray Fromm, the filmmakers cast two-time Academy Award nominee Tom Wilkinson

in the role. Tom Wilkinson took a role that could have very easily been portrayed as a villain and instead

portrayed him as a product of an extremely duplicitous, treacherous environment. He is a political

maneuverer trying to survive in this world, and hes played brilliantly, says Christopher McQuarrie.

General Erich Fellgiebel / Eddie Izzard

A career officer, Erich Fellgiebel was chief of the Army Signal Corps and thus privy to many of the

most sensitive secrets of the Nazi government. Recruited into the resistance by his senior officer Ludwig

Beck, Fellgiebel became an integral link in the conspiracy plot of July 20 th and was handed the vital task of

cutting communication from Hitlers Wolfs Lair to the rest of Germany. He would later be one of the first

conspirators arrested.

14


15/32

Taking on this role is British actor Eddie Izzard, who recently made his U.S. TV debut with The

Riches. Eddie is far from the most likely choice to play this character, but thats what we liked, notes

McQuarrie. His performance was quite unexpected. Fellgiebel is struggling with a decision, and we wanted

him to be hard to read so you wouldnt know his decision until the moment he made it. Eddie was able to do

that.

Izzard, long a history buff, was intrigued by Fellgiebel. Hes a career officer whos done well and is

brilliant at setting up the new technology for communications, he says. By the time we meet him in 1944,

he is in charge of all of Hitlers communications, so he knows everything thats coming and going which

means that Stauffenberg needs him. I think it was a chance for Fellgiebel to clear his conscience somewhat

by being part of this action.

Once on the set, Izzard was thrown right into the fire his first scene was the gut-wrenchingly

tense moment when Tom Cruise as Stauffenberg takes a chance by inviting Fellgiebel to join the secret

conspiracy. I had the uniform on and the hair and the glasses and then Tom comes in and he has so much

intensity, I had to find a way to spin into all of that, he says. It was a tough first day because every line

Tom has is just batting it back to me every angle Fellgiebel tries to use, Stauffenberg has already thought

of a counter-argument.

Lieutenant Werner von Haeften/Jamie Parker

The person who quite possibly had the most intimate view of Claus von Stauffenberg in the days

before July 20th was his personal aide. Werner von Haeften began working for Stauffenberg in 1943 and

soon became an integral part of the resistance himself. Haeften had studied law before joining the army in

the early days of the war. Like Stauffenberg, he was severely injured in battle. To play Haeften, the

filmmakers turned to rising young British star Jamie Parker, who recently came to the fore onscreen

reprising his Broadway role in The History Boys.

Jamie is a terrific young actor who plays a sort of Everyman in the movie very well, says Chris

Lee. He becomes a kind of surrogate for the audience as the new kid on the block who gets to know the

resistance as we watch.

Parker liked having the chance to show his characters path to becoming part of the conspiracy.

At first, hes just listening and observing all thats going on around him, but as he becomes more and more

involved, you get to see that process, says Parker.

Working with Tom Cruise was also an incredible experience for Parker. When I first got to the set,

I had a sort of minor meltdown, thinking thats Tom Cruise, who Ive seen in an awful lot of films, he says.

But he turned out to be an extraordinary bloke. He has unlimited energy and hes willing to go for it right

from the word go. He brought a real focus to the work ethic every day and you cant help but be affected by

that. It requires that youre always switched on, and it was an exciting experience.

Recreating the Berlin of 1944: The Design of Valkyrie

From the beginning, Bryan Singer knew he wanted VALKRYIE to defy the usual look and feel of a

film set in the World War II era. He envisioned a visual style that would echo the moody beauty and

intensity of classic films of the 1940s yet would rocket with the pace and tempo of a modern action-thriller.

Quite early on he began consulting with long-time creative collaborator director of photography Newton

15


16/32

Thomas Sigel on how they would create this on screen.

Sigel most recently worked with Singer creating the comic-book worlds of X-Men and Superman

Returns and he was excited to face a completely different challenge. Instead of worrying about green

screens and wire removal, we were going to be capturing history, Sigel says. I was very excited because

Im fascinated by history and politics and the social mechanics of the world, and it was great to make a film

with Bryan about all of those things.

There was also a strong personal connection in Valkyrie for Sigel. My mother was born in Berlin

and fled in 1938 right before Kristallnacht, so on an emotional level the story resonated very deeply for me,

he says. Working on this film gave me an opportunity to talk to her about things Id never heard from her

before.

Sigel and Singer discussed finding a distinctive but understated look for the film that would allow

the anxiety and emotions of what these imperiled conspirators were experiencing to come to the fore. We

mixed the classical look you see in some of the films from that period with their more formal framing and

weird oblique angles with elements of a contemporary thriller, he says. Im usually very impressionistic in

my style, but we held back more on this film. We felt strongly that we wanted the visual style of the film to

be very respectful of the reality of these events and the sacrifices made. The lighting, the angles, the

relationship between camera and subject they always had to be one of singular and simple truth.

They also determined the camerawork would subtly evolve from the first half of the film when the

plot is in its planning stages to the latter half when the plan to assassinate Hitler is in full motion and stakes

are ratcheted to relentless levels. The beginning of the film, before the bomb goes off in Hitlers

[conference hut], is done in a more classical way, with cranes and dollies and more formal, fluid

compositions, Sigel says. But after that, its almost entirely hand-held. We used a particular kind of hand-

held work with the cameras on the shoulders that feels almost like a hand-held dolly. The result creates a

kind of subtle nervous energy, a feeling of uncertainty, increasing the suspense and anxiety.

To delve deeper into recreating the inner world of the Third Reich, Sigel watched lots of old

footage, including recently discovered color film from World War II and eerie home movies shot by Hitlers

mistress, Eva Braun. The footage was very helpful in giving me a sense of the way people moved and

dressed and the feeling of the atmosphere, which is something we wanted to authentically capture, he

comments.

In terms of palette, Sigel focused on varying shades of red. Red was really the symbolic color of

the Nazi Party and I think it represents the primal bloodthirstiness of this regime, he says. Like the

camerawork, the colors get more intense as the film progresses, and you also see some of the warmth and

optimism of the conspirators start to fade.

Lighting challenges were another major element of the photography, particularly because Singer

and Sigel hoped to recreate the tense, shadowy feel of Berlin at night, where citizens were told to keep all

lights out and curtains drawn in case of sudden bombing raids. That was one of our biggest challenges,

because the city had to be very dark at night, says Sigel. In fact, the city was so dark they actually were

said to have used a cars headlights for the executions at the Bendlerblock, so thats what we tried to

recreate for those scenes.

Some of Sigels greatest inspiration came from working in Berlin itself, surrounded by the ghosts of

history. To be in Berlin where these events really happened was incredible, because it wasnt like you were

one step removed. Even though most of locations from 1944 no longer exist, you still feel the presence of

the war everywhere. It gave us a great sense of awe over the principles people laid their lives on the line

16


17/32

for, he says.

Shooting in Germany, and especially at the Bendlerblock the military headquarters where

Operation Valkyrie was born and came to its fateful conclusion was a highly emotional experience for

everyone in the cast and crew. It was truly moving to shoot in the Bendlerblock, says McQuarrie. We first

had a moment of silence in honor of the men who died there before reading a letter written by one of the

conspirators. In it, he expressed his hope that they would be seen as patriots and not as traitors. We were

surrounded by deep emotions over what we were commemorating.

The films production design was overseen by two-time Academy Award nominee Lilly Kilvert and

co-production designer Patrick Lumb, who had an unusual mandate: maintaining a look accurate to the

period while keeping it dynamically alive with tension. They were also faced with the substantial task of

recreating Nazi-era Germany in a Berlin that had to be entirely rebuilt after the war because of extensive

bombing and because Germans were very careful nothing from the era survived to become a shrine.

The production was able to find some civilian and government buildings in the story still in

existence. Filming was done at the former Luftwaffe headquarters, now the Ministry of Finance; at

Tempelhof Airport, where there is a large structure that was used by the Nazis; and also at the Messe Berlin,

which was originally built by the Nazis for the Worlds Fair in 1933. They were also able to shoot the exterior

of the house where Stauffenberg lived with his brother, which remains standing.

For locations that had to be recreated from scratch, the team looked to the works of Hitlers

architect, Albert Speer, who would later be the only senior Nazi government official to express remorse.

Speer was commissioned by Hitler to create grandiose, imposing buildings that would reflect the Nazi

philosophy in stone, so it was a challenge to recreate interior rooms that showcased the impressive scale he

preferred.

Among the most difficult buildings to recreate was Hitlers home and headquarters in the Bavarian

Alps, known as The Berghof. Using home movies shot by Eva Braun, the design team was able to

simulate the interiors of the chalet-style retreat that was devastated by the allies and ultimately torn down.

For the recreation of the Wolfs Lair, Hilters massive hideout in East Prussia where the July 20 th plot took

place, it took the crew about 12 weeks to build the set from scratch in a forest. All recreations were done

with an eye towards making things as accurate and true-to-history as possible.

The result was transporting. Looking at what the designers had done, for a minute I felt I was

there where Hitler and Stauffenberg took their historic picture together. I was thinking to myself this is not

real, we built this, but it felt completely real, says Gilbert Adler.

Meanwhile, the interior of the War Ministry, including the offices of Stauffenberg, Olbricht, and

Fromm where the plot is first hatched, was built on a soundstage at Berlins Babelsberg Studios.

Dressing the films interiors involved further detective work. Its illegal to have anything with a

swastika on it in todays Germany, but set decorator Bernhard Heinrich managed to collect artifacts from

collectors and museum all over the world, including authentic pieces that were actually on Hitlers desk.

Dressing the Third Reich: Joanna Johnstons Costumes

Equally key to the design of Valkyrie would be the costumes, which Bryan Singer wanted to be as

authentic to the Nazi Era as possible while still being richly cinematic. He brought aboard costume designer

Joanna Johnston, who is renowned for her work with Steven Spielberg, including the costumes for his WWII

epic Saving Private Ryan.

17


18/32

Johnston knew going into Valkyrie that films involving historical military uniforms are an experience

unto themselves. It takes you into a whole different mind set, she says. But with Valkyrie, I was

especially excited about the challenges because there was an opportunity to learn so much about this

fascinating time period.

Johnston worked closely with military uniforms advisor David Crossman, and also delved into her

own research, which she culled from the Museum of the Resistance in Berlin as well as from the limited but

indispensable photography available of most the real-life characters depicted in the film. In the photos, she

found crucial insights into the characters personalities. I studied the textures and nuances of each of the

characters very closely, she says. What was intriguing to me is that you might expect they would look very

cookie-cutter and similar. But in fact, German officers had great leeway in their dress. They each went to

their own personal tailors and thus each had their own individual quirks. Tresckow might do one thing with

his uniform and Olbricht another. My springboard was blowing up these tiny photos and using small, subtle

textures to reflect the differences in tone and character.

She received great support for her approach. Bryan and Tom were as keen as I was to do

something that hadnt really been done before, to give this period and place a texture and life that audiences

havent seen, she says.

Most of the exquisitely detailed clothing for the main characters was made by hand for the film with

the help of Michael Sloan, whom Johnston calls a brilliant cutter. But vintage uniforms were also proffered

for the large, secondary cast. It was very useful to have so many original garments, says Johnston. You

really cant beat the originals, because they have a certain cut and shape to them, and they also resonate of

enormous gravitas when you think of who might have worn them and what they might have witnessed in

them.

The core of Johnstons work was creating Stauffenbergs wardrobe, which she notes runs a wide

gamut from his Africa Corps uniform to his standard field grays to his lighter summer grays and the highly

ornamented outfit he wears when going to meet Hitler. We only had a few photographs to work from, so we

designed everything based on what we suspected he would have worn, she explains. We kept in mind a

word that was used to describe his style: irreverent. He often didnt wear all his insignia. He took the

stature out of his clothing by keeping it bare bones to not draw attention to himself.

Stauffenbergs injuries, especially his missing hand, added an additional layer of difficulty. At first,

there was a lot of complicated discussion about how to authentically depict the hand, she says. Ultimately,

we decided to use digital special effects, but there were still issues we had to address. I had to pay great

attention to the behavior of his sleeves, because there always had to be a sense of emptiness there. Tom

was a tremendous help here because he was effective at keeping his arm so still and dead.

Johnston took a bit more creative license with Nina. She was certainly a beautiful woman who had

a great sense of style, she says, but I also wanted to do something a little romantic with Nina. I used a

greater richness of color to play against the stark background of German uniforms, and also emphasized

movement whenever she is running or dancing.

The most daunting character of all for Johnston was Hitler, played by David Bamber. Throughout

cinematic history, Hitler has often been depicted as a cartoonish caricature. Johnston wanted to avoid all

the clichs, while also reflecting the reality of Hitler in 1944. We are in Hitlers decline at this point in time,

she points out, so hes starting to crumble. Hes thickened out a bit and he doesnt have quite the same

strong presence he had in the early days of his power. Bryan was really keen to get that aspect of him right.

We had a lot of meetings and fittings with David Bamber to assure it would feel very real.

18


19/32

When Bamber appeared on set in the final uniform, the effect was chilling. It was pretty

unsettling, admits the designer. When youre designing, you look past the big historical picture in order to

focus on the intimate details, but then when you see this reality in front of you it creates a lot of emotions.

The process of clothing each member of the resistance was similar, with the clothes transforming

the actor and vice versa. The German uniforms have a very strong look with the britches and boots, with

their sense of both power and tragedy and each actor brought it off quite differently, in his own way, which

was a fascinating exercise to observe, says Johnston.

Says Bill Nighy, The importance of the clothing cant be overstressed. To put on something as

deeply unsetting and formal as a military uniform makes you hold yourself in a different way, and your

behavior is profoundly informed by what youre wearing.

Johnston says, As with Saving Private Ryan, it was a privilege to be part of something that felt like

more than just a film. Its a story that honors incredible people and gives you a broader perspective on life.

19


20/32

A Brief History of the German Resistance to Hitler

One of the lingering myths of the World War II era is that all Germans were Nazis loyal to Adolf

Hitler. This was not the case, as there were a number of groups who both secretly and openly opposed the

regime of Adolf Hitler after he first came to power in 1933. These included student groups (including the

famous White Rose resistance group, who risked and gave their lives to distribute leaflets condemning the

Nazi Government and calling for its overthrow), religious groups, and a variety of political groups, including

socialists and communists, who defied the rise of Nazism, inviting imprisonment and execution. Sophie

Scholl and her brother, Hans, were beheaded for their roles in the White Rose.

As Hitlers ambitions for the country broadened and the grotesque machinations of the Holocaust

were put into motion, there were also a number of brave, conscientious individuals who committed singular

acts of resistance, hiding and helping Jews to escape and providing intelligence to the Allies as well as

refusing to cooperate with Nazi orders. Some such as Oskar Schindler and Pastor Niemller became

legendary.

But perhaps the least known, and most powerful, members of the German Resistance remain

those who were committed to fighting Hitler from inside the system military and high political office holders

who dreaded what was happening to their country and attempted to hatch conspiracies to do the only thing

that could alter the future: overthrow the government. The motives of those involved were probably quite

varied. Some merely hoped to install a less dangerous dictator, others hoped to change Germanys entire

political system, and still others were driven largely by humanitarian concerns. Yet each was convinced that

Hitler was a disaster for the country and needed to be stopped no matter the cost.

As early as 1936, there is evidence that German officers under the leadership of then Lieutenant-

Colonel Hans Oster were planning to assassinate Hitler. In 1938, a group of conspirators including General

Ludwig Beck (who would later be a key player in the July 20 th plot) planned to arrest and imprison Hitler on

the eve of war, but the plan fell apart. A significant attempt on Hitlers life came in 1939 when Georg Elser, a

carpenter, stole explosives from his workplace and built a powerful time-bomb, which he hid in a pillar near a

podium where he knew Hitler was to speak. The plan nearly worked. But when Hitlers speech ended

earlier than expected, the bomb went off too late, killing eight bystanders. Elser was arrested in November

1939 and executed at Dachau two weeks before its liberation.

Another assassination attempt in 1943, depicted in the film, was plotted by Henning von Tresckow.

Tresckow had persuaded a member of Hitlers staff, Lieutenant-Colonel Heinz Brandt, to carry a package

onto Hitlers airplane containing two adhesive mines (Clams) with a time-delay fuse, disguised as two

bottles of Cointreau. But once again, luck was on Hitlers side, as the bomb failed to go off, probably

because the freezing conditions in the cargo bay left its chemical detonator powerless. Tresckow was

undetected as the source of the bomb, allowing him to continue to seek a method and means to assassinate

Hitler.

This ultimately culminated in the July 20th plot, which was by far the most ambitious of all the

conspiracies against Hitler, not just because it was a plan for assassination but because it was a blueprint

for overthrowing and replacing the entire Nazi government. In the short term, the plots fateful end

destroyed the entire network of anti-Nazi conspirators within the government machinery. Approximately 200

persons were hanged for their involvement, 700 were arrested in direct connection, and 5000 were arrested

in August 1944 as potential enemies of the Reich. (Executions of those who took part in the plot continued

right up to the very last days of the war.) In the long term, however, the plot revealed a side of Germany that

20


21/32

had been largely unknown, inside and out. Although regarded as traitors for many years, those who

planned the July 20th plot are recognized in Germany for their courage and sacrifice. In 2004, then German

chancellor Gerhard Schrder laid a wreath for Claus von Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators, saying that

their actions were a reminder that a nation must again and again defend the values of freedom and

tolerance that we consider self-evident today.

TIMELINE

January 30, 1933 Hitler is appointed chancellor of Germany.

June 30, 1934 Night of the Long Knives: Hit ler has SA leaders murdered when they threatenhis control, and other political opponents are killed in the same sweep.

August 18, 1938 Chief of General Staff Ludwig Beck resigns, protesting Hitlers militaryaggression and warning of catastrophe.

Summer 1938 Lieutenant-Colonel Hans Oster organizes a military and civilian networkfocused on assassinating Hitler. Their plans, however, fail.

November 9, 1938 Kristallnacht: Widespread violence spreads against German Jews.

September 1, 1939 World War II begins as Germany invades Poland.

November 8, 1939 Georg Elser attempts to kil l Hitler with a bomb, but fails.

Summer 1941 Henning von Tresckow begins organizing a resistance within the Army GroupCenter.

March 13, 1943 Tresckows timebomb in Hit lers airplane fails to explode.

April 7, 1943 Claus von Stauffenberg is severely injured in Tunisia.

January 24, 1943 Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill demand the unconditionalsurrender of Germany.

Summer 1943 Tresckow, Friedrich Olbricht, and Claus von Stauffenberg begin to alter Hitlers

Operation Valkyrie in preparation for a coup.

October 1943 Stauffenberg named chief of staff of the General Army Office under Olbricht.

July 11, 1944 First plan to assassinate Hitler by Stauffenberg is aborted.

July 15, 1944 Second attempt to assassinate Hitler at the Wolfs Lair is aborted.

July 20, 1944 Stauffenberg sets off a bomb at the Wolfs Lair and the coup attempt begins.

That same night, Stauffenberg, Olbricht, Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, andWerner von Haeften are executed by firing squad in the courtyard onBendlerstrasse.

April 30, 1945 With the war all but over, Hitler commits suicide.

May 8, 1945 Germany surrenders unconditionally.

21


22/32

ABOUT THE CAST

TOM CRUISE (Claus von Stauffenberg) TOM CRUISE has achieved unprecedented success as an

actor, producer, and philanthropist in a career spanning over two decades. He is a three-time Academy

Award nominee whose films have earned in excess of six billion dollars worldwide an achievement to

which no other actor has come close.

Cruise was most recently seen as film executive Les Grossman in Ben Stillers comedy smash

Tropic Thunder. In 2007 he appeared in Robert Redfords ensemble political thriller Lions for Lambs, and

prior to that he reprised his role as special agent Ethan Hunt in J.J. Abrams Mission Impossible: 3.

In the 27 years since he became an actor, Cruise has worked with a remarkable list of film

directors, including Francis Ford Coppola, Curtis Hanson, Franco Zeffirelli, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Martin

Scorsese, Roger Donaldson, Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone, Ron Howard, Rob Reiner, Sydney Pollack, Neil

Jordan, Brian De Palma, Cameron Crowe, Stanley Kubrick, Paul Thomas Anderson, John Woo, Michael

Mann, and Steven Spielberg. Cruise received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor for Born on the

Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire in addition to a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Magnolia. In addition

to nods for Risky Business and A Few Good Men, he has won three Golden Globes: Best Actor, Born on the

Fourth of July; Best Actor, Jerry Maguire; and Best Supporting Actor, Magnolia.

While continuing to explore new artistic challenges, Cruise has utilized his professional successes

as a vehicle for positive change, becoming an international advocate, activist and philanthropist in the fields

of health and education. Recently he was honored by the Mentor-LA organization for his work on behalf of

the children of Los Angeles and around the world.

Cruise lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Kate, and his three children.

KENNETH BRANAGH (Henning von Tresckow), a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art,

made his West End acting debut in Another Country, for which he won the Society of West End Theaters

Award for Most Promising Newcomer. Numerous stage appearances followed, including the RSCs Henry

V, Loves Labours Lost and Hamlet. In 1985 he founded the Renaissance Theatre Company.

Productions which Branagh either wrote, starred in, or directed include Public Enemy, Twelfth Night, The

Life of Napoleon, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Hamlet, Look Back in Anger, Uncle

Vanya, King Lear, A Midsummer Nights Dream and Coriolanus.

Kenneth directed the hit stage comedy The Play What I Wrote, which transferred from Londons

West End to Broadway and received a Tony nomination. He returned to the stage in Richard III at the

Sheffield Crucible to great acclaim, and to the London stage with Mamets Edmond at the National

Theatre.

His first venture into film met instant success. His 1989 production of Henry V won a score of

international awards, including Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Director. Branagh

was subsequently invited to Hollywood to direct and star in Dead Again, which was a huge international hit.

He next directed the ensemble film Peters Friends, which won the Evening Standard Peter Sellers Award

for Comedy. His second Shakespearean film success was Much Ado About Nothing, and in the same year

his short film of the Chekhov play Swan Song received an Academy Award nomination.

He went on to direct Robert De Niro in the financially successful Mary Shelleys Frankenstein. His

black-and-white film In the Bleak Midwinter (A Midwinters Tale) opened the 1996 Sundance Film Festival

and won the prestigious Osello dOro at the Venice Film Festival. His critically acclaimed full-length version

22


23/32

of Hamlet, in 70mm, received 4 Academy Award nominations. Branaghs fourth Shakespeare film

adaptation was a 1930s musical version of Loves Labours Lost.

More recently, Branagh directed HBO Films As You Like It, a film of Mozarts opera The Magic

Flute, and Sleuth, written by Harold Pinter and starring Jude Law and Michael Caine.

Branaghs other film work includes acting roles in: Pat OConnors A Month in the Coutry, Oliver

Parkers Othello, Robert Altmans The Gingerbread Man, Woody Allens Celebrity, Danny Boyles Alien Love

Triangle, Paul Greengrasss The Theory of Flight, Barry Sonnenfelds Wild Wild West, Philip Noyces Rabbit

Proof Fence, and the second Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Branagh starred

as Gilderoy Lockhart, Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts, with a richly comic performance.

Branagh appeared in three outstanding television dramas: Shackleton for Channel 4 and A&E;

Conspiracy, for which he won an Emmy as Best Actor and a Golden Globe nomination; and Warm Springs,

in which he played FDR and was nominated for an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a SAG Award.

In 2008 he filmed a lead role in the new Richard Curtis comedy The Boat That Rocked and returns

to Londons West End in the title role of Chekhovs Ivanov. He also stars in a major new BBC TV crime

series as Detective Kurt Wallander, from Henning Mankells best-selling thrillers.

BILL NIGHY (Friedrich Olbricht) was born in Caterham, Surrey, in 1949 and trained for the stage at

the Guildford School of Acting. He made his professional stage debut at Newburys Watermill Theatre and

subsequently gained experience at regional theatres. It was in Liverpool that he formed a touring theatre

company with Julie Walters and Peter Postlethwaite. He made his first appearance in London in Comings

and Goings at the Hampstead Theatre in November 1978.

Bills long association with the work of David Hare began in the early 1980s when he was cast in

Dreams of Leaving, a BBC film written and directed by Sir David. They next worked together on Map Of

The World, which Hare both wrote and staged at the National Theatre in London. When Hare was asked

by Peter Hall, the Nationals Artistic Director, to form a company of actors, Bill became a founding member

of the ensemble that also included Anthony Hopkins. Hares first production for the new company was

Pravda, a merciless satire on the British newspaper industry which he co-wrote with Howard Brenton.

Hopkins and Nighy were again reunited for Hares production of King Lear, with Bill playing Edgar and

Anthony in the title role. A decade later, he starred in Hares Skylight, which won him a Barclays Theatre

Award.

Bill has regularly appeared at the National Theatre in a succession of new plays by leading British

writers. In 1993 he starred as an ambitious academic in Tom Stoppards Arcadia in a production by Trevor

Nunn. Seven years later he won enormous critical acclaim for his performance as psychiatrist Dr. Robert

Smith in Blue/Orange, written by Joe Penhall and directed by Roger Michell. It was a performance that

also brought him a Best Actor nomination in the prestigious Olivier Awards. Other theatre credits include

two revivals of Harold Pinter plays: Betrayal and A Kind of Alaska. Bill was also seen in a National

Theatre production of Chekhovs The Seagull opposite Judi Dench. Nighy previously worked with Dame

Judi on Absolute Hell (BBC), and they were recently reunited for the critically acclaimed film Notes on a

Scandal, also starring Cate Blanchett and directed by Richard Eyre.

Bills long list of television credits includes virtually every major drama series on British TV, but it

was his work on The Mens Room (BBC) in 1991 that brought him particular attention. More recently, he

won a BAFTA Best Actor Award and a Royal Television Society Best Actor Award for his performance as a

newspaper editor in the cult-series State of Play, and he has starred in two television films for writer/director

23


24/32

Stephen Poliakoff: The Lost Prince, for which he won a Golden Satellite Award, and the extraordinary

Gideons Daughter. His playing of Lawrence, a middle-aged Treasury official rejuvenated by love in HBOs

The Girl in the Cafe, won him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries and widespread praise

from critics.

Bill made his movie debut in the early 1980s with appearances in such films as The Little Drummer

Girl, and it was The Constant Gardener, another le Carre screen adaptation, which won him Best Supporting

Actor at the British Independent Film Awards in 2005. But it was Still Crazy and his performance as ageing

rock vocalist Ray Simms that established Bills cinema profile and which won him the Peter Sellers Award

for Best Comedy Performance, given by the London Evening Standard. Bill landed a second Peter Sellers

Award for his unforgettably washed-up pop star Billy Mack in Love, Actually, an enormously popular

performance that also won him a London Film Critics Award and a Best Supporting BAFTA.

Other cinema credits include Underworld, Underworld: Evolution, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz

and Enduring Love. In 2003, Bill won the Best Supporting Actor award from The L.A. Film Critics

Association for his performances in AKA, Lawless Heart, I Capture the Castle and Love Actually. Hes also

known for stellar performance as pirate captain Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest

and Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End, for which he was nominated for the Teen Choice Awards.

Bill recently performed on Broadway in David Hares The Vertical Hour alongside Julianne Moore.

His forthcoming film projects include the animated film G Force, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans and Richard

Curtis The Boat That Rocked.

TOM WILKINSON (Friedrich Fromm) earned several nominations, including Oscar, Golden

Globe, SAG and BAFTA nominations, for his performance in last years Michael Clayton. He won an Emmy

Award this year for his performance in John Adams and was also nominated for his performance in Recount,

both for HBO.

Wilkinson earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for In the Bedroom. He also

received a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor for the Oscar-nominated comedy The Full Monty.

Wilkinsons acclaimed lead performance in HBO Films Normal earned him Emmy and Golden Globe

nominations. His extensive list of film credits also includes Shakespeare in Love, Batman Begins, Eternal

Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Stage Beauty, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Oscar and Lucinda, Wilde, The

Governess, The Patriot, Sense and Sensibility, A Good Woman and The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

Wilkinsons recent features include Cassandra Dream and Dedication, and his upcoming projects include A

Number, Rocknrolla and Duplicity.

CARICE VAN HOUTENs (Nina von Stauffenberg) most recent work includes Ridley Scotts Body

of Lies opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, the mystery thriller Dorothy Mills, and Repossession Mambo with Jude

Law. On stage, she recently played the title role of The Dutchess of Parma opposite Emmy Award-winner

Pierre Bokma.

She was born in Leiderdorp (near Leiden) on September 5, 1976. Her parents are Margje Stasse

(on the board of Dutch educational TV) and writer and broadcaster Theodore van Houten. She is the elder

sister of actress and singer Jelka van Houten. When she was five her father took her to a screening of Abel

Gances epic Napoleon, which fascinated her. She has demonstrated great interest in cinema since. Carice

convincingly demonstrated her acting talents at the Bonifatius Lyceum high school, Utrecht, in the early 90s.

One of her first parts was the title role in Hugo Clauss play Tijl Uilenspiegehel. She also developed a skill

24


25/32

in clarinet playing.

In 1995 she was rather uniquely accepted by both the Maastricht and Amsterdam drama

academies, and started her TV career (Labyrint, VPRO TV 1997) as a student of the Kleinkunst Academie

Amsterdam. There she was awarded the 1999 Pisuisse Prize and the 2000 Top Naeff Prize for her theatre

work. A day before the Top Naeff Prize she was awarded the Gouden Kalf as best TV actress in Martin

Koolhovens Suzy Q.

In 2001 she starred in the film Amnesia by the same director. In September 2000 she joined the

Noord-Nederlands Toneel, starring as a both singing and acting Polly in a contemporary staging of The

Threepenny Opera to fabulously stunning reviews. Her great talent for dark comedy was demonstrated in a

parody on City Lights blind girl in the Amsterdam Kleine Komedie. Carice is a great admirer of American

silent comedies particularly Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy although she can display an equally dramatic

talent. In 2001 she made Minoes, starring in the title role of the cat-woman after Annie M.G. Schmidt. In the

2001-02 theatrical season she won the main role in a theatre production of Schmidts musical Foxtrot.

She is best known outside her native country for the role of Rachel Stein/Ellis De Vries in Paul

Verhoevens critically acclaimed war epic Black Book (2006). In March 2008 she was awarded the

Rembrandt Award as Best Actress in Love is All (Alles is Liefde).

Carice has appeared in Vanity Fair s Hollywood Edition (March 2008), photographed by Wayne

Maser, and in January 2008 was named Woman of the Year by New York Magazine.

THOMAS KRETSCHMANN (Otto Ernst Remer) was born in a no mans land which at various times

has been considered Germany, then Poland, then Russia. In East Germany, he trained as a teen to be an

Olympic swimmer, where he set numerous international swimming records, but instead decided to pursue

an acting career. At 20 years old, he was able to escape through Hungry, Yugoslavia, and Austria by foot to

West Berlin to begin a new life without the regimentation of communism and received political asylum. After

three years of odd jobs and acting classes, he was invited to be a member of the Schillertheater, Germanys

equivalent of Englands Royal Shakespeare Company.

In 1991, he made his film debut in Der Mitwisser, which earned him Germanys prestigious Max-

Ophuls Prize as Best Up & Coming Actor. When he appeared in the World War II epic Stalingrad, his

performance launched him into the international limelight. He went on to star in Queen Margot, Marching in

the Dark, Dario Argentos The Stendahl Syndrome and Prince Valiant, to name a few. American audiences

were introduced to Thomas in Universals U-571 directed by Jonathan Mostow. He then went on to do

Blade 2, directed by Guillermo De Toro. He starred opposite Adrian Brody in the Oscar-nominated film

directed by Roman Polanski, The Pianist. Peter Jacksons King Kong followed as well as Lee Tamahoris

Next. His recent films include Wanted opposite Angelina Jolie, Del Toros Hellboy 2: The Golden Army and

The Young Victoria opposite Emily Blunt.

Although Thomas has done limited television work, he did portray Pope John Paul II in the

television movie Have No Fear: Life of John Paul II.

TERENCE STAMP (Ludwig Beck) was born in Bow, London. His motion picture debut was the title

role in Peter Ustinovs 1962 film adaptation of Herman Melvilles Billy Budd, which brought him not only an

Academy Award nomination but also international attention. After his success in Billy Budd, Stamp

collaborated with some of the cinemas most revered filmmakers. Stamp starred in William Wylers

adaptation of John Fowles The Collector opposite Samantha Eggar, and in Modesty Blaise for director

25


26/32

Joseph Losey and producer Joe Janni. Stamp reteamed with producer Janni for two more projects: John

Schlesingers adaptation of Thomas Hardys Far from the Madding Crowd starring Julie Christie, and Ken

Loachs first feature film Poor Cow.

Stamp then journeyed to Italy to star in Federico Fellinis Toby Dammit, a 50-minute portion of the

Edgar Allan Poe film adaptation(s) Spirits of the Dead. Stamp made Italy his home for several years, during

which time his film work included Pier Palo Pasolinis Teorema opposite Silvana Magano. His subsequent

credits include Alan Cookes The Mind of Mr. Soames, Richard Donners Superman and Richard Lesters

Superman II (as Kryptonian super-villain General Zod), Peter Brooks Meetings with Remarkable Men,

Stephen Frears The Hit, Richard Franklins Link, Ivan Reitmans Legal Eagles, Michael Ciminos The

Sicilian, and Oliver Stones Wall Street. The film Prince of Shadows, in which the actor starred for director

Pilar Miro, was awarded the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

Stamp began his fourth decade as an actor wearing some of the choicest of Lizzy Gardiners

Academy Award-winning costumes for the comedy The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert for

director Stefan Elliot, starring with Guy Pierce and Hugo Weaving. In 1999 it was Terences lead role in

Steven Soderberghs The Limey which debuted that year to widespread critical acclaim at the Cannes Film

Festival that once again made him popular to a whole new generation of moviegoers. For his

performance, Terence received nominations for Best Male Lead at the 2000 Independent Spirit Awards and

for Best British Actor at the London Film Critic Circle (ALFS) Awards.

Stamp can also be seen in George Lucas global blockbuster Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom

Menace, Frank Ozs Bowfinger, Red Planet, the French romantic comedy My Wife is an Actress, Disney

The Haunted Mansion and Elektra.

In 2008, Terence was seen in the re-make of the famous television series Get Smart opposite

Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway. He also starred opposite Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy in the highly

anticipated feature film Wanted. Terence recently wrapped production on Yes Man playing opposite Jim

Carrey.

In addition to his acting career, Stamp is an accomplished writer and author. He has published

three volumes of his memoirs, including Stamp Album (written in tribute to his late mother), a novel entitled

The Night, and a cookbook co-written with Elizabeth Buxton to provide alternatives to those who are wheat

and dairy-intolerant.

EDDIE IZZARD (Erich Fellgiebel) is already one of the most acclaimed comics of his generation,

and is now developing an equally stellar reputation as a film, television and stage actor. His most recent

roles include Roman Nagel in Oceans Thirteen and Mr. Kite in Across the Universe, as well as lending his

voice to The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (as Reepicheep) and Jerry Seinfelds Bee Movie. In

addition, Izzard can be seen in Kitchen, a new television drama based on Kitchen Confidential, Anthony

Bourdains tell-all book about working as a chef in New York.

In April 2008, Izzard embarked on the largest comedy tour of his career. Izzards one man show,

fittingly titled Stripped, commenced in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 28th, with dates continuing through

early August across 30 cities.

This spring, Izzard was seen reprising his role in the final season of the television series The

Riches which he produced and starred in opposite Minnie Driver playing Wayne Malloy, a conman who

goes through a mid-life crisis and moves to the suburbs with his wife in an attempt to change their lives

around.

26


27/32

Izzard made his big-screen debut alongside Bob Hoskins and Robin Williams in the 1996 movie

Secret Agent. Other notable films Izzard has appeared in include Romance and Cigarettes, Blueberry,

Oceans Twelve and as Charlie Chaplin in The Cats Meow. He delighted children and adults alike as the

voice of the Sand Fairy in Five Children and It and as the voice of Nigel in the animated movie The Wild.

Other highlights in his movie career include appearing in The Avengers, All the Queens Men, and

Revengers Tragedy.

Izzards stage appearances include roles in David Mamets The Cryptogram, the title role in

Marlowes Edward II; 900 Oneonta, and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg in London and on Broadway,

which won him a number of awards, including a Tony nomination for Best Actor.

Since his first stage appearance on Londons West End in 1993 in the one-man show Live at the

Ambassadors, Izzard has inhabited a unique world of his own carefully crafted rubbish. Live at the

Ambassadors was followed by a succession of critically acclaimed shows, including Unrepeatable in 1994,

1996s Definite Article, Glorious in 1997, Dress to Kill in 1998 and the 2000 production Circle.

Izzards comedic musings have earned him some top awards from Time Out and the Perrier

Panel. Live at the Ambassadors received an Olivier Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement. He

won the British Comedy Award for Top Stand-Up Comedian in 1993 and 1996, and Dress to Kill earned

him a New York Drama Desk Award and two Emmys.

JAMIE PARKER (Werner von Haeften)

valkyrie finalnotes

Documents