Tom Cruise and his production company have been barred from filming scenes at German military sites:

Germany has banned the makers of Tom Cruise’s new movie from filming at military sites in the country because the actor is a Scientologist.

The German defence ministry said Cruise has “publicly professed to being a member of the Scientology cult”.

Scientology masquerades as a religion to make money, Germany said, but leaders of the church reject this.

“It’s a complex investment strategy,” the leaders added, “based on long-term, low-yield spiritual bonds — tied to, and heavily weighted toward, science fiction defense technology.”

Scientology has been monitored in Germany in the belief that its activities are “directed against the free democratic order” in the country.

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Cruise will play Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg in Valkyrie, leader of the 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler using a bomb hidden in a briefcase, scheduled for release next year.

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[Cruise’s producing partner, Paula] Wagner said Cruise’s portrayal in the film would be as a “heroic and principled figure”, while “Germany is the only place we can truly do the story justice”.

“We believe the film will go a long way toward reminding the world that even within the ranks of the German military, there was real resistance to the Nazi regime,” she added.

Stauffenberg’s son Berthold told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper earlier this week that he objected to Cruise taking the role because of his involvement with Scientology.

“He should keep his hands off my father,” Mr von Stauffenberg said.