EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Tom Cruise starrer Digger, which wowed at CinemaCon yesterday, is unlikely to debut at a fall festival, we can reveal.
The film’s October 2 release date has led to speculation, and anticipation, in many quarters that Venice or another fall festival would be on the cards. However, according to multiple well-placed sources, that’s not the current plan. Of course, things can change, but at the moment, we hear that’s how the land lies.
Warner Bros and Legendary declined to comment.
There has been some press of late suggesting that studios are turning away from A-list festivals. We reported multiple times that major studios were likely to be very thin on the ground at Cannes. In the end, they are non-existent.
Is the decision not to send Digger — one of the year’s most anticipated movies — further evidence of this ‘trend’? I’m not there just yet.
It’s unquestionable that at times of belt-tightening glitzy premieres at glamorous locations can be an unwanted cost. There’s also the danger that a movie gets a lackluster response from critics and is hampered ahead of its general release (see Joker: Folie à Deux). Crucially, Warner Bros’ One Battle After Another and Sinners both proved they could dominate awards season and fare well at the box office — especially the latter in terms of box office — despite not getting a festival berth; the same was true for A24’s Marty Supreme. There are high hopes from those working on the project that Digger can perform similarly well.
But, I’m not quite there to call it a trend yet. Last Cannes saw a special launch for Cruise’s latest Mission Impossible film. Admittedly, it didn’t score stellar box office, but it was a unique spotlight on the project. Venice and Telluride last year included plenty of studio projects from streamers and traditional players. This Venice is expected — by media, at least — to host a number of streamer and studio movies. Netflix, which doesn’t rely on the same theatrical returns for its films, has long been a fan of Venice and is expected back on the Lido this edition. But so was Digger.
Point being, this may be the start of a thing, but I’m prepared to wait to see the shape of the Venice and other fall festival lineups before declaring that studios have turned their backs on A-list festivals. These moves tend to be cyclical, anyway, and often depend on macro economics or the preferences of leadership etc.
As for Digger, the dark comedy will see Tom Cruise, in a transformative turn, play the most powerful man in the world, who races to prove he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he unleashed destroys everything. A trailer revealed yesterday saw Cruise as a balding, big-bellied, brash, Southern-accented industrialist called Digger Rockwell.
John Goodman, Jesse Plemons, Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed, Sophie Wilde, Emma D’Arcy, Robert John Burke, Burn Gorman, and Michael Stuhlbarg also star. You can read more about the WB-Legendary presentation here.
Tom Cruise in ‘Digger’
Warner Bros.
