UPDATE: Cinematical has been given this brand new still from the film, which shows Cruise without the eye patch.

MGM seems to be trying to reverse the effects of the doomsaying that circulated about Tom Cruise and Bryan Singer's Hitler-assassination-attempt thriller Valkyrie in the spring, culminating in the announcement that the movie was moving from December 2008 to President's Day 2009. That was received as a surrender, a sure sign that the studio had no confidence in the film and was doing damage control by moving it out of harm's way. Now, following some successful test screenings, MGM has reversed itself and is moving Valkyrie back into the heart of Oscar season: December 26, 2008. Apparently, though, the studio still doesn't think it has awards potential, and is making the move because it thinks Valkyrie will do well in the Christmastime marketplace.

I'm sure positive test screenings did have a lot to do with MGM's decision, but I think it's a smart move because it's great spin control. The press loves to read the tea leaves of studio behavior, and will see this as a major vote of confidence. I suspect the buzz on Valkyrie will seriously improve now that it is no longer the subject of what was perceived as a February dump.

For my part, I don't care about Tom Cruise or his silly eyepatch, but I have a lot of trust in Bryan Singer. The man can make a good mainstream thriller, and I don't see why Valkyrie should be any exception. I think a lot of the "bad buzz" (such as Roger Friedman randomly attacking the film) is just Cruise-bashing, which may be justified but probably shouldn't extend to his movies.

You know how they say the way to a man's heart is through food? Well, when you're an actor who's fallen from grace, then the way back into the hearts of your audience is through comedy. AND ... if you really want to go berserk, you choose a film that combines food and comedy! Wham! Welcome back to Hollywood Mr. Tom Cruise. Yup, The Hollywood Reporter tells us Cruise is enjoying all the buzz surrounding his scene-stealing cameo in Tropic Thunder and is now "loosely attached" (ie: the Oscar wind can blow and knock him right off) to the comedy Food Fight.

Should he remain this film's star, Cruise would play a snooty New York chef who, for some odd reason, is forced to cook in a school cafeteria. Steven Brill was originally in talks to direct the film, but they've since gone on to other candidates (one imagines Cruise wasn't too keen on working with the dude behind Without a Paddle and Drillbit Taylor). As of now, Adam Brooks (Definitely, Maybe) is attached to pen the script. Food Fight is just one of several projects Cruise is "loosely attached" to, as the world is still waiting to see what the man takes on following his stint as an eye patch-wearing Hitler assassin in Bryan Singer's upcoming Valkyrie.

Tom Cruise may be guilty of some odd public antics -- but he isn't guilty of photo fudging. Last week, we reported on Slate's little expose, where they examined a publicity photo released by United Artists. According to their graphic experts, the photo of Claus von Stauffenberg had been altered to better resemble Tom Cruise.

However, Yahoo! Movies now says Slate has been forced to retract the story. It turns out they were comparing the wrong photos -- they used one from the AP, as opposed to the Getty photograph United Artists used. Unfortunately, Slate didn't search all available archives for the photo before making their assertion.

United Artists is understandably upset over the slanderous claim. "The picture United Artists used of Colonel Stauffenberg can be found all over the Internet," said Valkyrie co-writer and producer Chris McQuarrie. He added that it would be much easier to "alter Tom Cruise" than to doctor "every available picture of Claus von Stauffenberg."

Now, with all due respect, I politely disagree with McQuarrie that the photo used by United Artists is easy to find. When this story first broke, I did my own Google search out of curiosity. The most readily available photo of von Stauffenberg is the one accompanying this post. It is also the first image Getty produces when you search their archives. The only site that produced the same photo was Spartacus Educational, and even then I wasn't sure, as the UA version seemed so much cleaner.

When two movies with similar plots hit theaters around the same time, it usually just reveals the vapidity of Hollywood formula (as was the case when Deep Impact and Armageddon came out a few months apart). The situation changes, however, when the subject matter has far more thematic weight. Defamer's S.T. VanAirsdale points out the potential conflict brewing now that The Weinstein Company has picked up U.S. theatrical, DVD and television rights to the 2004 German film Operation Valykrie, a dramatization of the failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hilter during World War II. Sound familiar? That's because Bryan Singer's upcoming 2009 release, Valkyrie, tells precisely the same story, with Tom Cruise in the role of would-be assassin Col. Claus Von Stauffenberg. In the German movie, the character is played by Sebastian Koch, the debonair star of The Lives of Others and Paul Verhoeven's Black Book.

In addition to the overlapping content, VanAirsdale points out another potential conflict: Koch's female co-star in Black Book, the alluring Carice van Houten, stars opposite Cruise in Valkyrie, creating the sort of meaty overlap that money can buy. Harvey Weinstein's no slouch when it comes to instigating controversy, but his company hasn't exactly had the best of luck with its recent daring titles (few turned out for Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?). Personal drama has impacted Cruise's films before, but this might be the rare case where he would have nothing to do with it.

• Claus Nissen (1938-2008) - Actor. Played "The Perfect Man" in Jørgen Leth's The Perfect Human, which was featured in and updated for Leth and Lars von Trier's documentary The Five Obstructions. He also played the character "Jensen" in von Trier's miniseries The Kingdom and The Kingdom II and appears in Susanne Bier's Family Matters, Bernard Girard's The Happiness Cage, Erik Balling's Olsen Gang series and Leth's Notes on Love and Good and Evil. He died April 29. (Danske Film)

• Carl Belfour (1952-2008) - Chief projectionist for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He died of a brain aneurysm April 23, in Los Angeles. (Variety)
• Nino Candido (1942-2008) - Property master and actor. Worked on Bull Durham, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Smile, Timescape, Night Game and TV's My Name is Earl. He appears in Hud and I Come in Peace. He died April 26, in Laughlin, Nevada. (IATSE Local 44)

What in the world is going on now? Valkyrie (recently criticized by Fox's Roger Friedman, who said the film "is set up for not only failure, but ridicule") has just shifted release dates yet again (according to The Hollywood Reporter); this time moving from October 2008 to President's Day Weekend 2009. You might remember that the flick was originally supposed to hit theaters this June, before the first release date shift was made. Some claimed MGM and United Artists were moving the film to the fall in order to line up for possible Oscar consideration. Could all of this early negative talk have convinced them to, instead, target one of the first big holiday weekends of 2009?

Seems like a pretty good decision to me. With everyone trashing Tom Cruise for his non-existent German accent and silly eye patch, there was pretty much no way this film was going to be taken seriously come Oscar time. The cast definitely rocks -- no doubt there -- but if Lions for Lambs proved anything, it's that you should not release a Tom Cruise film in the middle of Oscar season unless it's Thanksgiving Weekend and we're talking Mission Impossible 4. Valkyrie will now go up against a new Friday the 13th film and Confessions of a Shopaholic. Clark Woods, president of domestic distribution, had this to say: "When an opening became available for President's Day Weekend, we seized the opportunity. Moving into a big holiday weekend is the right move."

Let's hope there's still a right move to be made...

So we all know that Tom Cruise jokes are getting a little old, but you can't deny it's been fascinating to watch one of the most powerful guys in movies have a "freak out" and be forced to watch all his star-worship fade away. According to Fox News' Roger Friedman, it's not looking good for Bryan Singer's historical drama, Valkyrie. According to Friedman, "Valkyrie is a set up for not only failure, but ridicule." Friedman goes on to take shots at Cruise's attempts at a German accent and even Singer and Christopher McQuarrie's dialog gets a few (dis) honorable mentions. Although, to be fair, I wouldn't count on a gossip reporter from Fox to be the final word on film criticism.

Friedman joins the chorus of critics who think that Valkyrie will not only fail to improve Cruise's current Hollywood standing, but that it will further add another nail to his box office coffin. Cruise still has a few more chances to pull himself out of this mess: First up will be a cameo in Tropic Thunder, then it's on to a full-on attempt at comedy with director Todd Phillips (Old School) in Men, and finally Cruise is expected to star alongside Ben Stiller in the buddy comedy, The Hardy Men (which I personally think has some potential). Who knows? Maybe he will finally be making people laugh at him on purpose. Valkyrie arrives in theaters on October 3rd.

[via Film Drunk]

So for starters, the newest photos from Valkyrie manage to make Tom Cruise look a lot more dashing. Good thing, too, because the only other photo release prompted a flurry of cheap shots aimed at everybody's favorite tabloid whipping boy. Empire now has three new studio stills from Bryan Singer's historical drama about the infamous July 20th plot to assassinate Hitler. Joining Cruise are Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Izzard and Terrence Stamp. There are also some extra shots in the newsstand edition of Empire this month, along with an interview with Singer.

Cruise stars as German Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. In 1944, Stauffenberg along with other high-ranking officers in the Nazi party attempted to assassinate Adolph Hitler. Stauffenberg and his crew attempted to kill Hitler with a bomb planted in a briefcase. Obviously they failed, and the key players were rounded up almost immediately. By 1945, most of the men involved had committed suicide or had been executed in a variety of nasty ways.

I'm delighted by today's news that UA is apparently pleased enough with what they've seen of Valkyrie that they've signed screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie to a first look deal. The Usual Suspects is one of my favorite films -- the kind of film that will make me overlook a guy not doing anything of note for the next ten to twelve years of his career -- and what little I've heard about Valkyrie so far has put it at the top of my must-see list for 2008. It's got Carice van Houten, for starters, which should be enough to get anyone into the multiplex. The actual terms of McQuarrie's deal are known only to him and United Artists COO Xenu, but The Hollywood Reporter's writeup says that there are currently "several projects under discussion." One of them, we know, will not be the Alexander the Great biopic that McQuarrie spent much time on, only to be beaten to the punch by Oliver Stone's worst movie ever, and yes, I've seen U-Turn and it's great by comparison.

McQuarrie is currently prepping The Stanford Prison Experiment, a film based on a famous behavioral study conducted at Stanford in the 70s in which students had to play the roles of guards and prisoners and things got out of hands. For some reason, this doesn't really ring my bell -- I can't see how it will work as a sensible movie -- but one thing I love about McQuarrie is his fascination with history and I'm crossing my fingers that he'll use this deal to get his John Wilkes Booth screenplay into the development cycle immediately. What little I know of the script is that people who read it a couple of years ago were floored by it and that its development seemed to follow the same trajectory as the Alexander script -- it was written, it was tossed around and toyed with by some A-list actors and then dropped because of competition concerns. But unless it's flown under my radar, I don't know of any competing Booth film that has made it to the filming stage, so why not do it now? And seriously, raise your hand if you'd rather see McQuarrie's John Wilkes Booth biopic than Steven Spielberg's Lincoln biopic. Just like I thought -- every hand in the room.

Last week, a minuscule comment from Anne Thompson led to Latino Review bursting out with a scoop they claimed was true -- that Warner Bros. would not be inviting Brandon Routh back to star in the next solo Superman flick, currently titled The Man of Steel. In her article, Thompson claimed that Bryan Singer would most likely not direct the film since he was too busy working on other projects, and that the next time we see the Superman character he would be part of the much-hyped Justice League of America.

Cue AICN flying in to the rescue. According to the site, a "very high-ranking mole who is absolutely in a position to know what's happening with this film" said that whole Brandon Routh rumor was "absolutely false." That as of right now, Warner Bros. still wants Routh to return to the role, if and when another solo flick gets up and running. AICN tells us this is based on conversations as recent as a few weeks ago. One thing that's not mentioned, however, is whether Singer would return as director. Valkyrie is all but wrapped, and The Mayor of Castro Street shouldn't take that long to piece together. So if they plan to shoot this Superman film in, say, 2009 (for a summer 2010 release), then I don't see a problem with Singer making that schedule. Then again, perhaps the studio would rather someone else come in and take the reigns.

Me? I don't care ... so long as Routh wears less make-up and bulks up a little more. I want the manly man version of Supes this time, not the teenage girl version. You?

The release dates, they are a-changing! Universal just moved the release of the action flick Wanted, which stars Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy, from March to June 27th, 2008. That June release date was also held by Pixar's new one, WALL-E, and the Tom Cruise "Hitler assassination plot" flick -- Valkyrie. According to Coming Soon, Valkyrie has officially budged (though I think it would have absolutely crushed Wanted and it's courting a different audience than Wall-E). United Artists will now release the film on October 3rd of 2008 -- a date also held by less intense competition -- Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Guy Ritchie's Gerald Butler drama RocknRolla.

Valkyrie is directed by Bryan Singer and written by Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and Nathan Alexander. Tom Cruise has become everyone's favorite punching bag lately, and reaction to the trailer, particularly Cruise's lack of a German accent, was pretty hostile. (Although probably not as hostile as it would have been had he...attempted a German accent!) But the plot sounds awesome, Singer is a great director (Superman Returns aside), and it's got a hell of a cast -- including Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Stephen Fry, Eddie lzzard, Terence Stamp, Tom Wilkinson, and Black Book's stunning Carice Van Houton. How bad could it be? It's got to be better than Wanted -- have you seen the trailer for that thing? Haven't I seen that movie, oh, a thousand times already?

Although I generally prefer my wings with hot sauce and blue cheese, we're looking at a different type of wing here. This week we're looking at movies that are joined together by the common theme of winged creatures, so one might say we're Just Winging It.

Valkyrie
I'm not sure if the Valkyrie's of Norse mythology had wings of any kind, but whenever I hear the name I always picture the Marvel Comics character Valkyrie who was known for riding a winged horse. Anyway, this new flick from Bryan Singer (director of the first two X-Men movies and Superman Returns) looks awesome. Tom Cruise stars as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a German officer at the heart of a conspiracy to overthrow Hitler's regime and assassinate the dictator. Knowing that the plot is doomed to fail adds a sense of tragedy to the whole thing, as does the fact that this based on a true story. Kenneth Branaugh and Terrence Stamp also star. Here's Erik's take on the trailer.

Alvin and the Chipmunks
I know, Chipmunks aren't winged creatures, but flying squirrels sort of are and it's not a huge leap to... Oh come on, work with me, people. After the absolutely dreadful teaser trailer (click here to share my pain) that dropped a few months ago (you have only moments to sell us on your film and you give us a poop eating joke?) this full length trailer looks surprisingly less awful. I'm not saying it looks great, but it made me laugh a few times and yeah the little buggers are kind of cute. Jason Lee plays Dave Seville, a down on his luck songwriter who happens upon three talking squirrels whose singing voices make his otherwise crappy songs palatable. This one is coming out right before Christmas, so I'm betting we'll be hearing the classic Chipmunks Christmas song along with the covers of pop tunes you can hear them sing in the trailer.

We've seen pictures, a featurette went live on Apple yesterday, and now Yahoo has the first official trailer for this summer's Valkyrie, directed by Bryan Singer, and starring one heckuva cast including Tom Cruise, Carice van Houten, Bill Nighy, Terrence Stamp, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson and Eddie Izzard. Apart from it being a tad weird to watch English and American actors play a group of high-ranking German officers, the film looks great. I've been looking forward to Singer stepping away from the superhero world for a bit; I absolutely loved The Usual Suspects and it's been ten years since the guy came out with something on the big screen that wasn't based on a comic book. Coincidentally (or not), Singer's last hardcore drama (Apt Pupil) also dealt with Nazi themes, but this time the director decided to take it one step further and set his film in Germany, during World War II.

Based on a true story, Valkyrie (which was written by Christopher McQuarrie, who also penned Suspects) follows a group of German officers who, in 1944, conspired to assassinate Adolf Hitler in an attempt to end the war. The trailer looks sharp, cold, and though Cruise seems a bit out of place (then again, maybe it's just me), the rest of the cast look solid in their roles. Additionally, as freak-ish as it might sound, Cruise looks exactly like the real-life character he's portraying, Col. Claus von Stauffenberg. Valkyrie will attempt to find a home stuffed between two giant comic-related films (The Incredible Hulk, The Dark Knight), but I have a feeling it'll do just fine when the film hits theaters on July 27.

It didn't start off too smoothly, but it looks like Valkyrie, the thriller about Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg's attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler during World War II, has found it's groove. As things got going, Stauffenberg's offspring were complaining about Tom Cruise playing Claus, there were issues in securing locations, and even extras hurt on set. For the last little while, however, things seem to be going smoothly, and now MGM has released a featurette for the film over at apple.com.

It's a pretty slick clip, not one of those grainy, behind-the-scenes glimpses shot on a hand-held. Writer Christopher McQuarrie talks about the man at the center of the story, and how the film is split up. He says that the first half of the movie will focus on who the players are, while the second half will focus solely on the "July 20 Plot" to take Hitler's life. Kenneth Branagh is a one-man PR machine through much of it, and even describes how the script made his palms sweaty with excitement. Either he's overly exuberant, or that bodes well for the film, since they have to work against what we already know -- that the attempt failed.

The featurette shows all the main players in the film, although I really would've liked to see something on Stephen Fry or David Bamber, and they've done quite a job on Eddie Izzard. Apparently, everyone is "pitch perfect" in their roles, and they show the side-by-side of von Stauffenberg and Cruise, which is pretty spot-on, but it would've been nice to see the others. All in all, it's looking to be a slick thriller -- and with that cast, it would be a shame if it wasn't.