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I think this is probably a sign that Valkyrie sucks, but I'm holding out hope that perhaps they just don't know how to sell it as either a summer tentpole or an awards contender. It could be that, as with Zodiac, the studio just doesn't know what to do with what they have. Alas, I know I'm probably wrong.

How are you supposed to sell a movie where Tom Cruise plays the hero who fails and dies at the end?...

Mutinyco,

"How are you supposed to sell a movie where Tom Cruise plays the hero who fails and dies at the end?..."

SPOILER WARNING

Just as you would sell a movie where Russel Crowe plays the hero who fails and dies at the end (Gladiator), or Will Smith (I Am Legend), or Mel Gibson (Braveheart), or George Clooney (The Perfect Storm), or Bruce Willis (Armageddon), or Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed, Titanic, pick your movie), or.....

Those movies are ultimately triumphant (aside from Storm). The hero essentially martyrs himself, and even though he dies, he still wins. Valkyrie is about failure.

Mutinyco, you make a good point, although I don't know if DiCaprio's death in The Departed is really triumphant.

But Hitler did die, didn't he? I have not read the screenplay, but I am sure a narrative case will/could be made this conspiracy laid the groundwork for Hitler's downfall - I have very little doubt about that.

Dave, I actually think there's little chance of a MI4, sorry, they just waited too long for the last sequel and I really think that Cruise has about as much action credibility as Ben Stiller at this point. How ironic.

I think the obvious next step is a romantic comedy with Andy Tennant directing. I'm not kidding. No way he would let himself be paired up with a woman even within ten years of his age, so I'm thinking Anne Hathaway. Consider it done.

My guess is he'll get a three-episode arc on PUSHING DAISIES next season as a serial killer who makes a play for Kristen Chenoweth (who at 4'11" is the perfect height for him).

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU FUCKING NEGATIVE-NANCY NAYSAYERS.

Get ready, bitches, cuz this isn't going to be pretty.

And my IRONY MODE is set to MOTHERFUCKING OFF, because this one is for real.

TOM CRUISE is my IDOL.

Has been for 20 years. Dude is the GREATEST MOVIE STAR of the last 25 years, a LEGEND on par with Grant, Gable, THE DUKE, CLINT, you name it.

BOW BEFORE CRUISE. BOW!!!!!!

HMM, let's see, here's some DIRECTORS who've worked with Cruise:

COPPOLA
SCORSESE
KUBRICK
SPIELBERG
RIDLEY SCOTT
TONY SCOTT
MICHAEL MANN
CURTIS HANSON
OLIVER STONE
NEIL JORDAN
CAMERON CROWE
BRIAN DEPALMA
JOHN WOO
PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON
SYDNEY POLLACK

You think those guys suffer fools? You think those guys aren't in total fucking command of their medium or don't know EXACTLY what they want? Hmm, and they've all worked with THE GREATEST MOVIE STAR OF OUR AGE. And up until two or three years ago, most of you would have agreed.

But all because someone PRACTICED THEIR RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, their FREEDOM OF RELIGION, someone DARED to be EXPRESSIVE and maybe a little giddy or dorky about falling in love, suddenly you're all talking like the man's ready for fucking TV or DTV movies?????

How many BILLIONS of fucking dollars did this man make for this industry? How many MASTERPIECE fucking movies? How much fucking JOY did he bring to the MASSES AROUND THE GLOBE WITH HIS ACTING?

What have any of us accomplished? Eating a bowl of fucking cereal? Doing some niche bullshit? This is a MOVIE STAR who has BROUGHT THE WORLD TOGETHER, and you're all sounding off alarms like a February release date is some walk of shame level disgrace.

FUCK THAT.

The man is the GREATEST MOVIE STAR of our age. The man's HAIR is INCREDIBLE and if you don't seek to style your WACK-ASS COIF after TOM CRUISE in your day to day life, you are the lesser man for it.

CRUISE IS KING. ALL HAIL. And Singer's no fucking slouch. That trailer looked AWESOME. Gee, real sorry a bunch of gossip-mongering, pissy, petty-ass BITCHES have to snipe at a MOVIE STAR WHO'S SUPERIOR TO THEM ON EVERY LEVEL OF SUCCESS IN THE WORLD, taking cheap shots to gratify their own bullshit sense of insecurity and creating a story WHERE THERE IS NONE. (Not Poland specifically, just this tide of phony-ass backlash dating back to '05 on the subject of Cruise.)

How many of Cruise's DETRACTORS have worked with that list of directors? Fuck, how many of CRUISE'S PEERS IN ACTING have worked with a comparable list of directors? The man is a GENIUS at seeking out material, seeking out GREAT DIRECTORS and GREAT COLLABORATORS.

But, BOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO, he has steadfast beliefs in his chosen form of religion.

And OOOOOH, he has the BALLS to SPEAK HIS MIND and point out that we're becoming a NATION OF BITCH-ASS ZOMBIES, popping pills and going to BULLSHIT THERAPISTS.

Fuck ALL that. Man is INDIVIDUAL. Man is GOD of his own DESTINY. If you're legitimately disturbed, by all means, check into therapy or get on some medication. But 99.9% of the world is just FUCKING DRAMA QUEENS looking to EXCUSE THEIR OWN MEDIOCRITY AND LACK OF VISION, so, hey, let's get HOPPED UP on a bunch of BULLSHIT MEDICATION and PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS designed to KEEP YOU COMPLACENT, KEEP YOU MEDIOCRE.

Don't get MEDIOCRE. Don't go to therapists if you're just a working schmo bitch-ass. BE SUPERIOR. BE A FUCKING MAN. BE KING.

VALKYRIE WILL OWN YOUR ASS. EVERYTHING CRUISE EVER HAS DONE AND EVER WILL DONE, with the exceptions of maybe LOSIN' IT, FAR AND AWAY, and LAST SAMURAI, are LIFE-CHANGING PAENS TO THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING.

RECOGNIZE.

I will go to my grave believing -- no, knowing -- that Lex is a big put-on. The troll of trolls. I salute you, sir.

Believe what you will, son, no matter how MISTAKEN.

CRUISE RULES.

Good lord, that was impressive. The thing of it is: this story did not need to be made into a movie even though it's a good story. These german officers and generals realized a bit late that Hitler was the biggest kind of douche to ever walk the earth, and he had to be taken out. So they give it there all and literally miss him by fractions. This led to their deaths and Hitler's paranoia to grow exponentially. This means that in a way these men did help bring an end to the war, by making the dude with a syphilis wrecked brain even more of a paranoid fuck, that he started to make more and more stupid decisions.

Outside of a really good History International special. Who wants to sit through a movie where the REACTIONS to the plot's MAIN ACTION, will have to be explained in some sort of epilogue? This whole project was AWARDS-WANK from the go-get. Too damn bad it turned out to be shitty awards-wank.

"TOM CRUISE is my IDOL."

And so it all starts to make sense!

Ooh-hoo, it's ever passive-aggressive, bitter on the inside Kamikaze lobbing a weak-ass softball throw, ever hiding behind catty snark and tired irony instead of coming correct.

Really, that's the best you've got?

I'm _not_ going to agree with Lex except to say that this is more a sign that the movie won't be profitable (= popular to a mass audience) but could still be good (regardless of gross/profit margins).

CRUISE.

hah, I'm so sorry my retorts aren't up to your prestigious standards.

I never said anything about the picture's quality. My comment was solely about the marketing. It's a tough sell.

Nuts... I was hoping this was going to be good. Though Singer is hit (X-Men) and miss (Apt Pupil) on Nazi movies, so it shouldn't be too surprising if it isn't good. Still, I'll give it a chance when it comes out or comes out on DVD.

Oh, and while it's shocking to say, I kind of agree with LexG. Cruise has spent most of his career working with some of the best directors - many of whom have said really complimentary things about him. I wouldn't be surprised to see him call on some of those guys (like the next action movie Spielberg does after Indie 4) to help him get his career back on track. People will forgive his weird couch-jumping ways eventually.

I also agree with a lot of what Lex has to say, although I am not a Cruise FANatic. Cruise has been involved in many great films and has made some brave choices in his career. Recently I re-watched Magnolia and was again amazed by his intensity and range. I am also a fan of MI3, which I believe was very under-rated. I would love to see a forth MI movie. Lions for Lambs had problems (I hated the overwrought soldier scenes), but Cruise was magnetic in his role as the Senator...almost turning me Republican with his demonic faith in the absolute correctness of what he was doing.

Finally, there is another movie before Valkyrie that is getting Cruise some notice, and that is Stiller's Tropic Thunder. He has a comedic role in that movie that is supposed to steal the "thunder" from his more acclaimed comic co-stars.

What exactly does Roger Friedman being an ass have to do with Valkyrie being pushed back 4 months?

David I have to call bullshit on your post. You think films don't get pushed just so people have time to get it right? VALKYRIE will end up a great film. I don't know about BO but then I don't care. As far as stinking though, you're out of line bub. You base that on your whimsical charts which prove themselves wrong again and again.

------------------
IRON MAN
from the director of ZATHURA

You know, there really are times when I envy moviegoers of an earlier generation who could walk into, say, Casablanca or The Big Sleep or Gone With the Wind without knowing anything about production delays and rewrites and reshoots and hirings and firings -- and could simply enjoy the movie on its own merits.

The rules have changed concerning movie date bumps. It's better to find the right date and make sure the film is ready than to stand on stubborn principal. Finding the right weekend is very important. In general, October is not a good time to open a serious adult action oriented film (Departed being the rare exception, and it has the 10th best opening in October history).

In my opinion, there are some disastrous scheduling decisions being made at the studios right now.

June 13: The Happening and Incredible Hulk (similar audiences)
June 20: Love Guru and Get Smart (Identical audiences)

The average moviegoer doesn't care if a film has moved from it's original date. They only care if it's good. Valkyrie might end up being a bomb, but moving it's release date does not make it a definite dud. Move to when it can make the most impact.

Oh shit Lex, they're making fun of your rant on Defamer! LOL!

Your obsession with Cruise explains so much about you. From your horrible taste in chicks riddled with STD's (the same kind of taste that many closeted actors go for when trying to convince the public they're straight) to your Bi-Polar amping manic energy...

Everything is so clear...

And as someone who is the son of a Psychologist, who I guess according to Xenu is the equivalent of Satan, I often wonder about their opinions on medicine and psycho pharmacology...

Saying some people don't need meds to heal their mental health is asinine and narrow minded.

With that logic, what do you tell a diabetic when they need to regulate their insulin? Don't worry about it, you don't need your meds? Just put your mind in the "clear" and it will take care of itself?

It's a naive soul that thinks that just because your mental health cannot be measured or quantified by your five senses, does not mean a problem isn't there.

Tom Cruise and his ilk are just a bunch of manic, un treated Bi-Polar/Borderline personality types trying to justify their crazy...

And you don't even want to go into the dark rumors about that cat...scary stuff...

That being said, it's important to separate the Art from the Artist, and I do give that he is a helluva an actor and filmmaker. But now his persona has so worn down his cultural capital, I don't think he can recover...

God, if Tom would just come out of the closet and take his meds, the whole world would be a better place. It is believed by some scientific circles that this action would have a quantum effect on all and probably would even bring world peace..

I wonder if that happened, if Lex would still like him?

It seems that Cruise, like Hanks, isn't necessarily looking to make "guaranteed" $100m+ grossing movies anymore.

...Angels & Demons?

I actually just rewatched the Out of the Closet episode of South Park this past weekend. The "THIS IS WHAT SCIENTOLOGISTS BELIEVE" bit is gold.

"...Angels & Demons?"

what about "isn't necessarily" do you not get Jeff?

Missed it.
But you could also say they never were - Magnolia sure wasn't in that territory.

By the way, I apologize for my kneejerk pedanticism.

Nobody cares whether a movie has been delayed. Agreed.

That's not the point.

They don't date the fish you eat at a restaurant... but if something smells funny, you tend to ask... and if you are an industry analyst, you tend to presume.

But Don, others... it is the very rare film that is moved twice, especially into February, that doesn't crash and burn.

I HOPE the film is great.

Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't.

If the materials turn out to be great, I will be happy to jump on board.

If the movie is terrific, I will be the first to root for it at that point.

But even though President's Day weekend is now relatively open for this film... the signs are very bad.

And this film is not being pushed because it's not ready.

And if you don't know box office, then how do you know my charts are "whimsical." Please tell me what film made this shift into a February in the last decade that grossed over $50 million domestic.

Shoot Em Up may have been poorly sold... but the date was SHIT. Dates do matter. And if you want the first problem with selling your film, it was that date.

But again... may Valkyrie be the exception to the rule! Fine with me. I have nothing against Cruise or Singer or the idea of the film. I just know that very few push a $90 million film six months and eat interest to get to February, where the only movies that open to $20m or more are for kids, black audiences, or geeks. But maybe I am misreading what this film is. Seems like an adult sale to me.

Happy to be wrong. But history tends to be pretty sticky. Not from decades ago, but from this decade.

"But you could also say they never were - Magnolia sure wasn't in that territory."

Perhaps, but Magnolia wasn't "Tom Cruise in MAGNOLIA" if you catch my drift. Same for Lions for Lambs.

Now, if they sell the shit out of it as a TOM CRUISE movie, I still think it will have a decent opening, proving again that Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise.

We'll see.

LEXG, AS NOW FEATURED IN VANITY FAIR'S BLOG.

Congratulations, now all you need is a video component and they could have put you in last week's South Park.

You all ought to try and dig up a DVD of the incredibly interesting Peter O'Toole 1976 TV film, Rogue Male, taken from a 1939 book of the same name.

It's a fictional tale of a pre-war assassination attempt on Hitler's life. It is an odd but real gem and is quite different from any of the "popular" films on the theme, including Cruise's Valkyrie.

Whether or not one is a FAN of Cruise is immaterial. His film is going to be a very difficult one to market. The widely released photo of Tom dressed as a one eyed Nazi has already become a joke, and that's a tough image to erase, because Tom's public persona and controversial promotion of Scientology has damaged his appeal.

Selling Valkyrie as a Cruise film is unlikely to attract general audiences as he once did, and given the subject matter of this film, may hinder it's success. But, if it's a very good film, well reviewed, and he manages to not make an ass of himself in the meantime, it may do OK.

Selling a movie as a Tom Cruise movie guarantees around $20m at least, if sold right. If it's clear he is the star, people are interested. Mission Impossible 3 still opened, and performed as well as I thought it would (it was good, but nothing really new for the series, which is why it stumbled a bit), and felt the media's reaction as it being a "huge disappointment" was a way at trying to bash Cruise because, welp, that was the thing to do back then. Jeff mentioned Magnolia, which was released before the shitstorm on Cruise, and it didn't open, yet no one questioned his box office power. It's all perception, and unless Cruise sells a movie as his movie, it's all speculation.

Actually, O'Toole visited this territory once before: the events in VALKYRIE were the B-story in his 1966 NIGHT OF THE GENERALS.

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