Babelsberg offers to negotiate settlement in 'Valkyrie' extras case (AP)
By Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte
Germany�s Studio Babelsberg has offered to negotiate a settlement with a group of extras who were injured on the set of "Valkyrie." The extras recently demanded Tom Cruise and United Artists pay them damages of $11 million.
"We have offered a settlement," Charles Woebcken, president and chief executive of Studio Babelsberg, a co-producer on the film told The Associated Press. "But they haven't even reacted," he added.
United Artists did not hire them but the dozen extras sent UA a letter demanding $11 million for injuries when the door of a truck they were riding in during the film shoot in August 2007 fell open.
A statement from Cruise and United Artists� spokeswoman, Julie Polkes, said the company does not comment on "pending or threatened legal matters.""To date, no lawsuits have been filed against United Artists or Mr. Cruise, nor have any allegations been made of any involvement of Mr. Cruise in this incident," the statement read. "All press reports and comments to the press stating otherwise and designed to generate sensational headlines are false."
The extras were hired by Achte Babelsberg Film GmbH which is a sister company of Studio Babelsberg, the AP reports. Woebcken said there was a thorough investigation of the incident and, a week later, the legal department sent a letter to the extras' attorney to begin the negotiation process for settlement.
Still, Woebcken says there has been no response. Ariane Bluttner, the Berlin-based attorney for the actors, said they answered some inquiries from Babelsberg lawyers but received no offers of compensation.
In an email to the AP, Bluttner contends, "Mr. Cruise, Ms. Wagner and United Artists Entertainment did not exercise reasonable care to select a reasonably competent, experienced, careful and properly equipped contractor."
But Woebcken criticized the extras and their attorney for going directly to United Artists, calling it a publicity stunt, and said his company's legal department would handle any claims.
"In America, these things happen," Woebcken said, referring to the $11 million demand. "You have a different system in Germany. If you lose an arm, it's not worth a million dollars. This (is) a broken rib," he told the AP.
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