'Valkyrie' Faces Lawsuit Over Nazi Prop

Sunday

04Jan2009

'Valkyrie' Faces Lawsuit Over Nazi Prop

Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 6:06PM

Valkyrie faced its fair share of obstacles before and during its production. There was the injured extras in the summer of 2007 and German government officials not wanting Tom Cruise to shoot a movie there because of his beliefs in Scientology.

Now there's a new issue hurdle for Valkyrie and its producers, and this time it's a bizarre copyright issue. Back in 2007, ad executive and art collector Robert Pritikin bought the infamous world globe used by Adolf Hitler in World War II. Part of the reason Pritikin spent $100,000 on the globe was to prevent its likeness from being used by neo-Nazi groups as propaganda. The globe shows up multiple times in Valkyrie, and the film never received permission to use its likeness.

"Tom Cruise's use of the globe's likeness without our client's permission was likely just an oversight," investigator Dan Hanks told Page Six. "We're confident this will all be quickly resolved out of court." One option apparently open to Cruise is to buy the globe and other items from the Third Reich and donate them to the Weisenthal Center, or at least that's the opinion of another Pritikin investigator, Paul Baressi.

Added Hanks, "It would be a hell of a way for Tom Cruise to save the day for United Artists and be a real-life hero."

It does seem like an oversight, and perhaps the producers simply didn't know you'd need to get approval to show an historical artifact in a movie about the same subject. In any event, I can't imagine the settlement would break the bank; it's not like Valkyrie is a pro-Hitler movie.

Colin Boyd |

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Reader Comments (1)

How did we get so greedy that we are copyrighting historical artifacts and selling the rights. I want a quarter every time they use a cross on anything.

Sunday, January 4, 2009 |

Orinn

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