Reichstag rules ‘Mission: Impossible 3’film shoot impossible

4 May 2004

BERLIN – A top official Tuesday said it would be impossible for scenes for the new Tom Cruise movie “Mission: Impossible 3” to be shot at Germany’s Reichstag parliament building.

Wolfgang Thierse, the parliamentary president, turned down a Babelsberg studios request, saying the 110-year-old building has never been used as a film location and never will be.

“Bundestag Speaker Wolfgang Thierse does not intend to make an exception for this production either,” said his spokesman Hans Hotter.

Cruise toured the building in March while scouting locations in the German capital. He reportedly felt the structure’s soaring glass cupola, added to the building by architect Norman Foster in the 1990s, would make a dramatic backdrop for scenes in the new movie.

The Reichstag was built in 1894, part of it was destroyed by fire in 1933, and the building was heavily damaged in 1945 during the Battle of Berlin. It was rebuilt in the 1960s, but the dome was not replaced. The Reichstag was then reconstructed to again serve as the federal parliament from 1995 to 1999 by Foster.

Principal photography for “MI3” is to begin this summer at Babelsberg studios, where such classics as “The Blue Angel” and “Metropolis” were produced.

DPA

Subject: German news