Hitler Film Ready For Release

Tom Cruise's German war drama Valkyrie will be released this Christmas - after test audiences approved of the long-anticipated movie.

Film bosses had initially pushed the release date back to February 2009 after shooting overran.

But the movie, which also stars Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp, and comedian Eddie Izzard, has now been brought forward for American audiences after wowing viewers at test screenings.

In the film, Cruise, 46, stars as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a German World War II colonel and Catholic aristocrat who leads the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Describing Stauffenberg's heroism, Cruise said: "I thought of it in terms of what Stauffenberg represents. He was someone who realized that he had to take the steps that ultimately cost him his life... He recognized what was at stake."

Valkyrie is now due to hit U.S. theaters on December 26.