The U.K.’s Daily Mail has just posted this picture from the upcoming film Valkyrie. It reveals Tom Cruise’s character Count Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and his team of co-conspirators as they look over plans to kill Hitler and end World War II.
Daily Mail gives this cast breakdown:
KEVIN McNally, 51, plays Carl Goerdeler, the former mayor of Leipzig. He was the son of a Prussian district judge, and after studying law became a local civil servant.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}He also became price commissioner in the government of Heinrich Bruning and remained in office when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}Goerdeler resigned in 1934 after disagreement with Hitler over his policies and was a central figure in the civilian resistance to Hitler.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}But when the July 20 bomb attempt backfiredhe was betrayed and arrested. He was beheaded in Ploetzensee jail in Berlin in 1945.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}CHRISTIAN Berkel, 49, plays von Quirnheim, once a committed Nazi officer who became disillusioned with Hitler’s conduct of the war in 1943.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}Drawn into the conspiracy, he was shot in July 1944, when Hitler survived the bomb, which went off in his headquarters in East Prussia.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}BILL Nighy, 57, plays the general who was one of the main architects of the operation.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}He mistrusted Hitler from the earliest days but served with distinction in the campaign against Poland in 1939 and against France the following year.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}The general was shot in the Bendlerblock in Berlin, the headquarters of the army high command, where the conspirators had hoped to stage a coup.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}TOM Cruise, 45, plays the leading role of the nobleman who planted a briefcase containing two pounds of explosives in Hitler’s conference room at his headquarters.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}But the briefcase was moved behind a table leg before it exploded, protecting Hitler from the brunt of the blast which killed four others in the room.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}The American’s character turned against the war after learning about the Nazi’s extermination of so many Jews.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}Stauffenberg was a driving force in the conspiracy. He too met his end in the Bendlerblock before a firing squad, shouting, “Long live Germany!”{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}TERENCE Stamp, 68, plays the General, one of the only officers to stand up to Hitler in the early days of his regime.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}As head of the general staff, the British actor’s character-knew a war against the West was unwinnable and quit in August 1938.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}The General joined the resistance later in the war and was arrested after Valkyrie failed.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}He was allowed to commit suicide with his own pistol but managed to blind himself instead. He was killed by a Nazi stormtrooper.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}DAVID Schofield, 56, who featured in the Pirates of the Caribbean films, plays the Field Marshal, who was one of the conquerors of France in the Blitzkrieg of 1940.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}Like Stauffenberg, the British actor’s character came to realize Hitler was leading Germany to disaster and joined the conspiracy against him in 1942.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}Arrested on August 8, 1944, he was strangled in the Ploetzensee prison in Berlin. Thousands of co-conspirators met the same fate, their deaths filmed for Hitler to watch in the cinema at his Berchtesgaden mountain retreat.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}KENNETH Branagh, 46, plays Stauffenberg’s closest accomplice in the plot.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}Although he was initially a Nazi sympathizer, the Shakespearean-actor’s character became disenchanted with Hitler’s war plans.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}He planned several assassination plots, but all failed. When he heard that the Valkyrie plot had failed, he killed himself with a hand grenade on the eastern front.{@@@newline@@@}{@@@newline@@@}He left behind several papers, one of which said: “Hitler is a dancing dervish. One must shoot him.”
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
Valkyrie opens June 27th, 2008.
