Wartime thriller 'Valkyrie' starring Tom Cruise hit screens across China on Thursday, after raking in more than one hundred million dollars in North America since its New York premiere on December 13, 2008.The World War II film, directed by 'X-Men' director Bryan Singer, is based on the true story of the 1944 plot, lead by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, to assassinate Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and topple the Third Reich regime.
The film's China premiere was held on Wednesday in Beijing without the attendance of Tom Cruise, who was also absent from the Oscars earlier this week, due to his busy schedule.
It's been three years since the last Tom Cruise blockbuster, 'Mission Impossible 3', premiered in China in 2006.
In an e-mail interview with Beijing News, a local newspaper, the Hollywood mogul said he's always been fascinated with the World War II period, and he couldn't get enough of it when first reading the screenplay of 'Valkyrie'.
The scenes of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg joining the German Resistance group, a secret anti-Nazi organization, were filmed in a house Stauffenberg once dropped by, and the owner of the house, whose father was executed by the Nazis after the Hitler assassination failed, showed the 'Valkyrie' crew pictures of her time, Cruise revealed.
The Hollywood actor said he wasn't troubled by the prospect of playing a controversial character. He was aware the moment he took on the Stauffenberg role, that the controversy of 'good Germans during World War II' would follow with the film.
The filming of 'Valkyrie' was not without controversy. It was reported the German government would not allow film shooting in certain locations because of Cruise's American background and his reputation as a staunch scientologist.
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