Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Tom Cruise create a visual feast promoted all over Los Angeles
Digger is big and loud and all over the place. The big-budget comedy/drama (not a musical) from Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu stars Tom Cruise as a Texas oil billionaire destroying the planet from the comforts of his ancient, deteriorating mansion.
The reveals, twists and turns were like an exciting thrill ride. I was enthralled with the production design, cinematography and giant moving set pieces that had me on my feet. Tom Cruise is utterly captivating and his scenes with John Goodman as a mad president are a standout. But then there were long speeches that may or may not have caused me to slip into a little nap during at my late-night screening in an especially luxurious lounger.
Film premiere at the Director’s Village in WestwoodCredit: Photo by John Shearer/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Pictures)
Movie promotion is always larger-than-life in Los Angeles, so we got an absolutely colossal shovel plunged into the earth outside of the Directors Village theater in Westwood where the film premiered last week and equally enormous three-dimensional shovels popping out of billboards around Hollywood.
The oversized movie is also being screened in IMAX at venues including the TCL Chinese Theater and in the 1950s-era VistaVision format at three theaters in the United States: New York, Boston and the AMC at The Grove.
Digger popcorn bucket at AMCCredit: Photo by Chris Nichols
Themed popcorn buckets have become ubiquitous at summer blockbusters in recent years, growing ever more outrageous in size and special effects. Digger has a big, brown boot you can get filled with buttery popcorn – or leave empty for its trip to eBay. There’s one on there now for $132 – more expensive than a barrel of oil!
Tom Cruise in DiggerCredit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
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Special menus and fan events are hitting local theaters with a “Bourbon Smash” served with a cowboy skewer at Look Dine-In Cinemas and a bourbon-based Strike Oil Smash cocktail at Alamo Drafthouse, which says “Witnessing a global catastrophe has never been this much fun.”
Alamo is also offering an exclusive letterpress art print, but the biggest art event around the film’s release was by L.A.’s legendary Ed Ruscha. The 88-year-old pop artist created a unique new poster for the film unveiled at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Ruscha called the film “epic” and “kaleidoscopic” and we agree, even if Time called it “pure, empty-headed trickery.” It sure filled our head. I guess the trick worked.
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Ed Ruscha and Tom CruiseCredit: Photo by David Jon Photography