Weinsteins trying to capitalize on VALKYRIE!

Smart, smart move from the Weinsteins - and how often have I been able to say that for the past couple of years? As Bryan Singer keeps pushing back his World War II ensemble drama Valkyrie, those two prolific studio execs have been scouring the back catalogue of foreign cinema and recently picked up the distribution rights to a 2004 German movie titled Operation Valkyrie. The movie tells the exact same detailed plot about the failed assassination attempt on the life of Adolf Hitler during the height of his reign as next year's Hollywood version starring Tom Cruise.

The German version stars Sebastian Koch who you will recognise from two movies that have already made it to English language shores Black Book and The Lives of Others and was actually developed as a made for t.v. feature. With the right marketing campaign... this could put a small dent in Singer's movie but let's not lose our heads, it probably won't effect it at all. Extremely rarely does the second film dealing with the exact same subject fare well at the box office because most people aren't interested in seeing the same film twice, just with different actors in the same roles HOWEVER this is not the case with foreign movies. Which is why so many are remade, glossed over with Hollywood stars and re-released with a big marketing campaign. Smart move from the Weinsteins because it should earn them some nice side cash for little work but this won't effect Singer's movie at all I don't think. If anything, it might help it. source - variety