The Inquisitr » valkyrie

Tom Cruise speaks Spanish. At press conference in Brazil. Where they speak Portuguese.

Duncan Riley — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 17:00:05 +0000

Tom Cruise isn’t endearing himself to the natives in Brazil, with a nice little display of cultural stupidity.

Cruise was in town to promote Valkyrie, and decided it would be really smart to trying to speak to the locals in Spanish, saying “hola” (hello) and “gracias” (thank you).

One tiny little problem though. They don’t speak Spanish in Brazil, they speak Portuguese.

It’s the equivalent of a French actress doing a media conference in the United States flipping into Spanish instead of English….actually, no, that doesn’t work, chances are a good portion of the audience in the US would speak Spanish, but I digress, because it would still be rather rude.

I guess Xenu doesn’t hand out pills for intelligence.

Valkyrie Producers May Be Sued Over Hitler Globe; Copyright Law Gone Mad

Duncan Riley — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:57:39 +0000

The producers of Valkyrie, Tom Cruise’s newest movie based on the plot during World War Two to kill Hitler may be sued for using a reproduction of the famous Hitler Globe.

The globes, produced in the 1930’s were given to high ranking officials in the Third Reich, with one Globe said to be kept at Berchtesgaden (The Eagles Nest), the Bavarian Country home of Hitler. Most were destroyed during the war, but the Berchtesgaden Globe was retrieved by American soldiers.

Art collector Robert Pritikin acquired the globe in 2007 and filed a copyright claim over reproductions, ostensibly to stop neo-Nazi’s creating copies, and this is where the problem for Valkyrie lies: they didn’t seek permission from Pritikin to use the globe reproduction first.

According to Page Six, the Globe is actually up for sale, the Pritikin is said to be hoping the matter will be resolved without going to court…or better still Tom Cruise will buy the globe.

Sadly though it’s a case of copyright law gone mad. This is a work created in the 1930’s by a German company that no longer exists; that an art collector can claim copyright over the work in 2007 when the work, under both US and German law should be in the public domain is scary within itself. Worse still though, the copyright claim means that an historical event, and portrayal of that event based on facts, is now limited by copyright law, even events that occurred over 60 years ago. Imagine for example a copyright claim over parts of the US Civil War, the US War of Independence, or the Battles of World War One? That we despise Hitler is irrelevant: history needs to be free so that we are able to remember it freely, copyright law has no place here at all. It’s yet another sickening example of how copyright law has been corrupted by greed and blatant disregard for the common good.

Valkyrie final trailer released

Duncan Riley — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:39:54 +0000

The final trailer for the upcoming Tom Cruise movie Valkyrie has been released.

The movie is based on the true story on the 20 July plot of German officers against Adolf Hitler and also stars Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Carice van Houten, Thomas Kretschmann, Eddie Izzard, Christian Berkel and Terence Stamp.

Valkyrie is set to hit the big screen late December in the US, and early next year everywhere else. As I said when we covered the last trailer, I’m not a Tom Cruise fan, but this is a movie I’ll be paying to see.

Valkyrie Trailer

Duncan Riley — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 03:37:09 +0000

The first trailer for Tom Cruise’s next movie Valkyrie has been released (as above, if you can’t see it on the feed, visit the page to view). While I’m not a Tom Cruise fan, the story itself places it high up on my watch list. The movie is centered on the July 20 plot to kill Hilter during WWII. I won’t spoil the ending…but suffice to say, anyone with a basic knowledge of history will know how the movie ends.