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Exp Feb 15, 2009 excludes tax and gratuity $2.00 OFF RIBS OR BBQ CHICKEN FOR TWO A ll l dinners inc IN de salad or coleslaw, potatoes and garlic bread. Exp. 2/10/9 cTibe Brass Pointe pood6p99frigh 24234 Orchard Lake Rd., N.E. corner of 10 Mile • 476-1377 Open 7 Days a week for lunch & dinner B16 December 25 • 2008 Berlin from page B15 pefSLY3 iconographies — as well as the sheer, overwhelming horror of it. And I felt [Apt Pupil] was a movie about a kid who shared this fascination and took it to a very dark place' Singer was adopted shortly after birth by a largely secular Jewish family and raised in New Jersey. "My immediate family was not par- ticularly religious; my extended family was more so. We went to temple on the holidays, but I was not a bar mitzvah. A lot of my Jewish friends are surprised by that, and I have an uncle who is 87 and keeps wanting me to do it." Singer became aware of the atroci- ties of the Holocaust when he was very young. His family "spoke about it quite often:' he said. "My mother's side of the family was from Russia, and my father's side was Polish. A lot of their family was wiped out. "In our family, there was an album, a series of portraits of relatives, many of whom I recognized. But there also was a group of people — I have no idea who they were. I asked my father who these people are. He just said, `These people are gone. They're the people who are gone.' It was a visual representation of how my relatives were wiped out." Talking about the photo album brings to mind another anecdote. "Two of my best friends growing up were German, and we used to talk about Germany and the Holocaust. We also used to play war, and sometimes I'd be the American sol- dier and sometimes I'd be the German. When my mother found out about that, she gave me a pretty stern lecture about what the Six Million meant and how it extended to our family" But it was a high-school social stud- ies teacher, a Ms. Fiscarelli, who taught a unit on the Holocaust and really inter- ested Singer in the subject. His other interest was photography and film. He attended film school, broke through with The Usual Suspects and has been given increasingly important — and expensive — studio projects ever since. (In fact, there are reports that the fate of United Artists hinges on Valkyrie's success.) Singer laughs when it is mentioned. "I don't think about that;' he says. But certainly he's heard the stories. "I still don't think about that. I don't pre- tend to know on whose shoulders the studio's future rests." Whether he thinks about it or not, it has affected perception about the film. Cruise heads United Artists, which has gone through an executive reshuffling and badly needs a hit. In addition, there are the problems associated with being anywhere near Tom Cruise at a time when the media (and anyone with an Internet blog) seems to relish piling on. "The deal I made with United Artists was unrelated to [Cruise] being in the picture says Singer. "But in the back of my mind, I was keenly aware of his physical resemblance to von Stauffenberg. Also, I knew he'd done some unconventional roles and was hoping he would do it." Cruise, familiar with the project as a UA executive, signed on. For Singer, who has never directed a major film star, this added a new dimension to the project. "I was aware [of the noise sur- rounding Cruise], but I didn't obsess over it. I don't surf the Internet gos- sip sites. I don't read tabloids. I know Tom's career, and I know the films he's made and the filmmakers he's worked with. I know him to be hardworking and sincere." Other members of the cast include acclaimed actors Tom Wilkinson, Kenneth Branagh and Bill Nighy. The film's problems began early, when the German Defense Ministry threatened to refuse Singer access to its building and sites if Cruise, a Scientologist, was cast in the role of von Stauffenberg. Germany has a long history of run-ins with Scientology. Singer maintains that once he explained the seriousness with which he and Cruise approached the film, the government relented and even helped finance the picture. That wasn't enough for the "kick 'em when they're down" experts, who went into a feeding frenzy. They didn't like the early posters of Cruise in an eye patch. They didn't like that he didn't speak with a German accent (at Singer's direction). One online poster didn't even like the way he gave the Nazi salute. Yet his performance is more than credible and the film more than sus- penseful. Moreover, for many viewers, it will be a revelation. The plot to kill Hitler was more than just a briefcase bomb; there were plans for a wide- spread coup to take over the reins of power. "The events here were extraordi- nary. I didn't want to make a languid biopic," says Singer. And, despite the sniping, he has succeeded. ❑ Valkyrie opens Thursday, Dec. 25.