It looks like United Artists and Tom Cruise might be able to pull Tom’s career right back on track with a movie we were all expecting to suck: Valkyrie.

A few months ago, MGM took Valkyrie, the newest from Cruise and Bryan Singer, and buried it against the Friday the 13th remake bowing in this Februrary. Most people discounted Valkyrie at that point, us included. Mostly because you don’t spend millions of dollars on a Tom Cruise Nazi movie and then bury it in the boneyard of the release schedule.

Now, MGM has announced that Valkyrie will bow into theaters on December 26th, slamming it up against Frank Miller’s The Spirit, The Time Traveller’s Wife and – shudder – Marley and Me. MGM says that that movie will find a better audience at Christmas than it would have in February (true) and that this has nothing to do with awards season (a huge lie).

The important thing for Cruise and United Artists is Valkyrie’s box-office take. They are still about $50 million dollars in the hole after Lions For Lambs proved that people weren’t as in to political debate cinema as big stars expect.

Can eye-patched Cruise live to fight another day? Or is this the inevitable nail in his celebrity coffin, mere days after his Tropic Thunder performance has people claiming the man still has chops.