Valkyrie, the Bryan Singer movie starring an eye-patched Tom Cruise as a German general involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler has had its release date pushed back from this October to February 13, 2009. This is the second time that the troubled production, which first generated headlines by upsetting Germans who wanted Cruise to git off their land, has had its release date rescheduled; once upon a time, it was a much-anticipated summer release, and the center of Cruise and producer Paula Wagner's plans to rejuvenate United Artists. (The previous center of that particular campaign, Lions for Lambs, crash landed into theaters last fall.) The reason for the original push-back was that Singer needed additional time to finish the film--and, rather astonishingly, he still does. According to Kim Masters, "Singer will film a scaled-back version of what was originally conceived as a Saving Private Ryan-type opening. According to [Masters's] source, the sequence was abandoned at one time as a cost-saving measure—and this movie is racking up the bucks—but when it became clear that the film was too talky, the battle was reinstated. The sequence explains why hero Claus von Stauffenberg wears that eye patch. A studio source contends that the battle scene was always in. Apparently, it was going to be filmed in Dubai, which tried to lure the production with hopes of a publicity windfall derived from the presence of Tom, Katie, and Suri. Film your next movie in Dubai! That deal fell apart, and no location has been selected."

At this point, Cruise himself may be the least of Valkyrie's problems. The star has reportedly been very well-behaved on the set, and Masters believes that "Cruise has begun to appreciate the magnitude of career damage that he has inflicted upon himself, though he may not completely grasp the cause." He is not alone; as an example of just how unsettling the prospect of the Tomcat in decline is for some of the fans who've grown up thinking he hung the moon over the Hollywood hills, James Wolcott highlighted a deranged rant that somebody stuck in the comments section of David Poland's movie news site, The Hot Blog. The fact that his professional setbacks can inspire such panic attacks in the devoted may not mean that Cruise's career has yet reached the point of no return, but when somebody launches their Internet career by appearing on YouTube shrieking, "Leave Top Gun alone!!", we'll know that it's probably time for lights out.