BERLIN, Germany (August 21, 2007) – The extras injured during the shooting of Tom Cruise’s new WWII film, “Valkyrie,” last weekend, are now threatening to sue the film’s producers, their lawyer said Tuesday.

According to European wire service Agence France Presse, attorney Ariane Bluttner has said she will launch legal action against the production company making the film, “unless it unbureaucratically and rapidly compensated the injured.”

“Those responsible on the set displayed inhuman indifference in playing with the health and the lives of the extras,” Bluttner continued to AFP.

Access Hollywood has reached out to United Artists for comment on the lawsuit threat, but has not heard back at this time.

The group of extras was injured this weekend when they fell out of a truck during filming of a new movie starring Tom Cruise. The injured parties were taken to a hospital as filming stopped on the movie, which stars Cruise as Germany’s most famous anti-Hitler plotter, Col. Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg. Another person who fell out of the truck was unhurt.

Cruise himself was not involved in the weekend filming.

Police said in a statement to the Associated Press that a bolt on a side panel of the truck apparently came loose as the vehicle turned.

United Artists publicist Allan Mayer confirmed the accident in a statement to Access Hollywood, but said that nine people were involved — not eleven, as has been previously reported.

“The injuries where ‘extremely minor,‘” said Mayer, “and only nine extras were injured (NOT 11). The truck was going 15 miles-per-hour. The 2nd Unit was filming that day, and Tom Cruise was NOT working. Eight of the extras were treated for “cuts and bruises,” and the ninth was kept overnight for observation.”

The accident happened during filming of scenes around the Finance Ministry in Berlin, which was once the Nazis’ aviation ministry. (Source: Access Hollywood)

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BERLIN (AP) — Several extras were injured when they fell out of a truck during the filming of Valkyrie, which stars Tom Cruise as Germany’s most famous anti-Hitler plotter.

The accident happened Sunday evening while scenes were being shot around the Finance Ministry in Berlin, which was once the Nazis’ aviation ministry.

United Artists said 10 extras briefly required medical attention after falling off the truck, which the studio said was traveling at less than 10 mph when wooden slats gave way — sending them off the side.

“No one suffered anything more serious than cuts and bruises, though one of the extras was kept in the hospital overnight for observation,” said a statement Monday from United Artists.

Police said a bolt on a side panel of the truck apparently came loose as the vehicle turned a corner.

“Tom Cruise was not there and the film director also wasn’t there,” said Berlin police spokesman Martin Grosse. He put the total number of injured extras at 11.

Studio officials weren’t immediately available for further comment.

United Artists said the movie’s main production unit, which includes director Bryan Singer and Cruise himself, wasn’t filming at the time of the accident — and “it is not expected to have any impact on the production schedule.”

Police opened an investigation of persons unknown on suspicion of negligent bodily harm, Grosse said. That is a standard procedure with workplace accidents in Germany.

Valkyrie stars Cruise as Col. Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg, the aristocratic army officer executed after a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944.

The casting of Cruise has attracted controversy in Germany because the 45-year-old actor is an adherent of Scientology, which the German government considers a commercial enterprise that takes advantage of vulnerable people.

Some critics maintain that one of Scientology’s members shouldn’t be playing one of the Nazi era’s few heroes.

Filming of Valkyrie began in mid-July. The movie is scheduled for release next year. (Source: USA Today)

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US Weekly – July 4, 2005
Star Systeme – June 18, 2005
US Weekly – June 29, 2005
People Magazine – June 6, 2005
Vanity Fair Italy 2005
US Weekly – May 16, 2005
Télé (France) – May 14, 2005
Celebrity Living – May 16, 2005
Lions for Lambs
Thanks to katie-holmes.org!

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – United Artists, the film company run by actor Tom Cruise and Chief Executive Paula Wagner, said on Thursday it raised $500 million through Merrill Lynch to fund 15 to 18 movies over the next five years.

Wagner called the financing “a milestone event” for United Artists, which was revived last year by Cruise, Wagner and their studio partner, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.

“It leaves us perfectly poised to realize our vision of making movies that are both important and commercial,” Wagner said in a statement.

Financial details were not disclosed.

One of Hollywood’s biggest box office draws, Cruise has starred in blockbusters like “Mission: Impossible” and Oscar contenders such as “Jerry Maguire.”

But last year, Cruise’s long-time studio partner Paramount Pictures cut its ties to Cruise and Wagner following the release of “Mission: Impossible III” — an international hit with $264 million at overseas box offices, but only a modest success with $134 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales.

Cruise and Wagner went to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer where they partnered with the studio behind the James Bond movies to revive United Artists.

Separately, a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer spokesman refuted a published report that Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank had withdrawn from underwriting $1 billion in financing for MGM.

MGM’s Jeff Pryor said the studio never had a firm deal with Goldman Sachs or Deutsche Bank, so there was never a commitment from which to withdraw.

“We are confident we will come to (a financing package for MGM), but we are not in any hurry to do a slate deal,” Pryor said. “Slate” is used to describe a group of upcoming films.

Pryor added that MGM’s priority was completing the United Artists funding, which demonstrated “that even in tough market conditions, good product will always prevail.”

United Artists said it expects to release four to six films a year. First up is Drama “Lions for Lambs,” directed by Robert Redford and set for a November release. Beyond that, World War II thriller “Valkyrie” will hit theaters in the summer of 2008.

MGM is owned by a consortium of companies including private equity firms Texas Pacific Group and Providence Equity Partners, Sony Corp and Comcast Corp. (Source: Yahoo! News)

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Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have denied claims their daughter Suri will front a new advertising campaign by Baby Gap, insisting the reports are “totally untrue”.

The proud parents were reportedly offered a lucrative modeling contract by the clothes chain for their 16-month-old daughter to become the new face of the kids’ fashion label.

But a representative for the Hollywood couple has dismissed the reports as “totally untrue”, according to US. (Starpulse)

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Check them out:
Leaving Salumeria fior di pane restaurant in Berlin
Berlin Zoo

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Added a couple of more pictures and albums:
Shopping in Berlin
Screen (?) – October 2005
Moviestar (France) – September 2005
Instyle – September 2005
People Magazine – August 8, 2005
People Magazine – July 25, 2005
Hello UK – June 30, 2005
US – July 11, 2005
People Magazine – July 4, 2005
Beckham Party – July 22, 2007
Thanks to katie-holmes.org!

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By ANI

Washington, Aug 9 (ANI): Actress Joan Allen is set to star in the Universal Pictures’ remake of 1975 cult action film ‘Death Race 2000′, to be directed by Paul W.S. Anderson.

Actors Ian McShane and Tyrese Gibson also are buckling up for ‘Death Race’, which will star Jason Statham in the lead role, Hollywood Reporter reports.

The film, which is to be produced by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner via their C/W Productions along with Anderson and his Impact Pictures partner Jeremy Bolt, shows a future America in which prisoners are forced to brutally compete in an enclosed arena.

Statham will play a prisoner, Frankenstein who is forced to become a driver just weeks before his release, and becomes the crowd favourite.

Allen will play the warden of the prison who runs the race and mercilessly forces Statham to enter the arena.

McShane will star as a coach, while Gibson will be Machine Gun Joe, a sociopathic racer, who seeks to escape from prison.

The film’s production will start this year with an aim for a fall 2008 release. (ANI) (Source: Yahoo! India)

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MegaStar reports:

Tom Cruise is rumoured to be making an appearance in the new Star Trek film.
The internet is awash with the story that Lost creator JJ Abrams, who directed Cruise in MI:III – or Milli, as we still like to call it – has asked TC to appear in his forthcoming reinvention of Star Trek.
The suggestion is that Cruise will play Christopher Pike, which will now get all the Trekkies amongst you terribly excited. For those of you with social skills though, Pike was the predecessor to Captain Kirk and is a cult figure in the series.
Unlikely? Well, as Total Film points out, Cruise has done cameos before (such as Goldmember) and the Milli connection could help. Star Trek is slated for a 2008 release…

CanMag has more details on Tom’s role:
Cruise will play the role of Captain Christopher Pike, James T. Kirk’s predecessor as captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise and Mr. Spock’s first commanding officer. Spock supposedly served with Pike for a decade and we encounter there relationship in the two-part series opener, “The Menagerie.”

On Tom as an actor they say this:
“…You have to admit that he would make a great addition as a smaller role. Cruise may have some exploited flaws, but they guy not only knows how to resurrect a studio (*cough* UA), but is a terrific actor.”

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Uploaded some more pictures:
Shopping in Berlin
Tom, Katie & Suri in Sardinia
Tom & Katie in St. Tropez

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