As the ‘Digger’ Awards Campaign Launches, Will Tom Cruise Do What it Takes to Win an Oscar? — SkimNews
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- Tom Cruise stars in Alejandro G. Iñárritu's "Digger," a $160 million comedy shot in 35mm VistaVision by three-time Oscar winner Emmanuel "Chivo" Lubezki, opening Oct. 2 — his first Oscar-relevant role since a Supporting Actor nomination for "Magnolia" 26 years ago.
- Warner Bros./Legendary is mounting an awards campaign insiders estimate could cost up to $15 million, with billboards up on Sunset Boulevard, even though "Digger" is predicted to open soft at $20–25 million domestic and needs north of $300 million worldwide to break even.
- Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu told the columnist the set experience was "the most amazing, unexpected, sweet, gentle relation that I have had on a set," adding: "He will surprise the world. People will see a new kind of thing."
- Cruise's press rollout is carefully staged: a GQ interview (his first sit-down magazine piece in years), Q&As on Sept. 27 and 29 in Los Angeles, and a Royal Premiere in London on Sept. 22 — but no New York Q&As and no sit-downs with serious journalists, with longtime publicist Jan Craft and Strategy PR steering the campaign.
- One veteran Oscar campaigner told the columnist Cruise is well-positioned with voters: "This is a movie star playing a character role. He relishes it… At that age it makes sense: 'I can do other stuff besides just climb cliffs.'"
- The film's "Dr. Strangelove"-style premise casts Cruise in full makeup as a brash entrepreneur who caused the end of the world, alongside Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller, John Goodman, and Jesse Plemons.
Why it matters: Hollywood's self-described "last movie star" is making his first Oscar-relevant turn in a generation, but the $15 million campaign leans on billboards and red carpets rather than substantive interviews — betting Iñárritu's prestige and a character-role pivot can lift a film predicted to open at just $20–25 million domestically and needing $300 million worldwide to break even.
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