Tom Cruise in "Digger" - WTF?

[Mike Blakesley]

I have never seen a film get so much "work" from the studio to promote it, yet evoke such negative reactions from people.

They even put out two separate one-sheets last summer announcing the new TRAILER coming out. I think there have been five or six trailers so far, including one with a three-minute retrospective of previous Tom Cruise films "all leading up to...." this new one.

Tom Cruise showed up at Cinemacon to talk about the film, and the rumor is it's going to be shown next month at the Cinema United Fall Summit.

With all that, I've heard zero positive buzz on it. Today a lady said to me "I was kind of excited for that movie since it's Tom Cruise, but then I saw the trailer and went "yeah, no."

On top of that the movie is filmed with a really weird color palette that makes the actors look like they've been dead for a week or so.

I want to see it, because I think it looks intriguing. What are your thoughts or comments you've heard?

[Ed Gordon]

The one trailer I saw did not really generate much interest for me. The comments below do a better job of selling the movie, and warn you that this might not be a film for you.

First ‘Digger’ Reactions: Film Compared To Kubrick’s ‘Dr. Strangelove’, Tom Cruise Doing ‘Shades Of Les Grossman’

One source called the movie ‘awesome,’ noting that it starts with Cruise as a Texan oil tycoon whose rig causes a catastrophic spill, sparking a potential global disaster. Suddenly convinced that fate has called him to save the world, Digger embarks on a chaotic, often hilarious, and wildly over-the-top mission to save it—meeting with the planet’s most powerful figures, including the President of the United States (Goodman). Think Dr. Strangelove, but made for the 21st century,” reported World of Reel.

One person who thought it was all too much, describing the film as ‘overstuffed and chaotic,’ with Cruise’s larger-than-life antics bordering on cartoonish, but still liking his ‘wild’ performance. They admitted the technical aspects were stunning, and the ensemble cast delivered, but felt the sheer scale of the catastrophes and dark comedy overwhelmed them. Even so, they added, ‘It’s impossible not to be fascinated—it’s a mess in the best possible way.'"

[Leo Enticknap]

On top of that the movie is filmed with a really weird color palette that makes the actors look like they've been dead for a week or so.

At last, I have an excuse to post this:

Hollywood Colorist Fired After Accidentally Leaving Color In Film

Entertainment · Sep 4, 2026 · BabylonBee.com

BURBANK, CA — Panic swept through Warner Bros. Studios on Tuesday after a senior colorist was terminated for accidentally allowing visible primary colors to remain in a major motion picture.

The incident occurred during post-production on a recent blockbuster when colorist Marcus Taylor failed to apply the industry-standard gray filter to the film.

"We walked into the screening room and were horrified," executive producer Donald Frank said. "The sky was unmistakably blue, and a character was wearing a jacket that was recognizably red. It completely shattered the serious, prestigious atmosphere."

Witnesses reported that several executives experienced severe discomfort upon discovering that grass in an outdoor sequence appeared green rather than a post-apocalyptic olive.

In a public statement, the studio confirmed that Taylor was escorted off the lot for gross negligence.

"In today's cinematic landscape, audiences expect films to look like they were dragged through wet cement," the release read. "Allowing actual light and saturation into a theatrical release violates our core commitment to muted, washed-out depression."

At publishing time, the studio had hired three emergency technicians to apply a heavy tint of dark teal, ensuring the movie could safely be released without anyone being able to tell what was happening on screen

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[David Ferguson]

I saw the trailer for it before The Odyssey, and I really liked the it and have been looking forward to it. We've now found out that Odeon Leicester Square (and some other places) will be showing it on 8/35mm VistaVision so I will likely travel and see it in that format - and hopefully find it more rewarding than One Battle After Another where I didn't perceive the quality difference.

[Jim Cassedy]

The studio and/or the venue I'm at seems to be heavily promoting this movie. Over the
weekend a display standee showed up, with a wholebuncha free 'Digger' lobby cards.
Digger_1.jpg

I wonder if we're going to be selling stuffed 'dead cats' at our lobby store when we run this movie?
Digger_2.jpg


It's nice that they're promoting VistaVision™ and they've managed to get the horizontal format image
orientation correct, but they've got a different 'perf count' in every graphic, and NONE of them are correct for V-V!
Digger_3.jpg
The image above seems to show a VistaVision image 12 perfs wide.

This one has 16 perfs!
Digger_4.jpg

And to add to the confusion, IMDB, which will never win any awards for accuracy, list's DIGGER's
aspect ratio as 2:39, but the ingest letter from Deluxe, and the actual CPL says something different.

Here's the CPL-> Digger_FTR-3_F_EN-EN-CCAP_US_ATMOS-71-HI-VI_4K_, etc etc

Here's the Deluxe "standard" ingest letter. (cropped for brevity)
Digger_IngestNote_1.jpg

But wait- There's More! - There's also apparantly this 1.50 aspect ratio too!
DiggerIngestNote_2.jpg
I'm not sure what "side-by-side VistaVision projection" is, and whoever wrote this probably didn't know either. Perhaps
they meant to refer to it as "horizontal" Vista Vision projection, which is what I think this version of the DCP is for.


I'm actually surprised that we're not running a film copy of this at my theater, because we are booked to show a number
of upcoming new releases in both 35mm and 70mm between now and the end of the year.

[Harold Hallikainen]

I wonder if the variable number of perforations per frame corresponds to the variable aspect ratio...

[Mike Blakesley]

I'm going to come up with a list of "features" and start promoting all movies as being "shown in RoxyVision." Can't hurt. Maybe we can raise the prices a little since we'll have such a boost in quality.

[Harold Hallikainen]

When you show a digital Vista Vision movie, do you have to turn your projector on its side?

[Tj Hopland]

Does the "if Atmos isn't available use 5.1" mean there isn't a 7.1? I feel like we have seen that a few times lately.

[Jim Cassedy]

Does the "if Atmos isn't available use 5.1" mean there
isn't a 7.1? I feel like we have seen that a few times lately.

According to Deluxe, there does seem to be a standard 7.1 version:

DiggerFormats.png

I saw this same note on another feature recently where there were only 5.1 (standard) and a
7.1Atmos version available. Because my theater is considered some sort of national historical
landmark or something like that, our ceilings apparently have the same protections as the Bald
Eagle or Spotted Owl, and can't be molested in any way that doesn't require an act of Congress.
- - and I did a test during a press screening and the 5.1 version did sound better in our biggest
auditorium than the 7.1/IAB version played without Atmos.

[Chris Haller]

According to Deluxe, there does seem to be a standard 7.1 version:

I saw this same note on another feature recently where there were only 5.1 (standard) and a
7.1Atmos version available. Because my theater is considered some sort of national historical
landmark or something like that, our ceilings apparently have the same protections as the Bald
Eagle or Spotted Owl, and can't be molested in any way that doesn't require an act of Congress.
- - and I did a test during a press screening and the 5.1 version did sound better in our biggest
auditorium than the 7.1/IAB version played without Atmos.

Was this The Weight? I requested 7.1/IAB keys for my standard houses because we're setup for 7.1 for that title just because I wanted to give it a test. They denied the request, so I just ran it privately in our 4K Laser+ Atmos house for myself and did 5.1 for the public.

[Mark Ogden]

I watched about 45 minutes of this, right up until the reveal of a ludicrous plot twist that made the guy behind me audibly groan (without spoiling, it turns out that the movie you think you are watching isn't the movie you are really watching). If I had paid for the ticket, I probably would have demanded my money back.

Although it's only five screens worldwide, I feel bad for whoever brought out 8/35 again for this. In Boston, BL&S caged the original VistaVision machines from the Eastman Museum and set them up in the Coolidge Corner Cinema, a multi-day task that starts with taking two DP70s out of a cramped booth. Now they are stuck with a dog as their first show after the expense of putting new seats in. This is the problem with trying to prop up a bad movie with an esoteric projection format; for all the additional expense I don't see anybody leaving this talking about the slightly higher resolution, moreover it'll likely make people think again before going out of their way to see the next 8/35 release. I think on some level WB thinks it's a waste as well, they didn't bother with a 70mm release like they did with One Battle After Another, their last VV title.

[Mike Blakesley]

Well, the numbers are in -- $8 million opening weekend. It's Tom Cruise's worst opening in about two decades.

I can't believe anyone who saw the trailers for this movie didn't see that coming. We didn't play this on the break, thankfully. Time to start taking down the posters.

[Jim Cassedy]

I've had several regular customers ask why the picture 'isn't masked properly' and
about the black bars on each side in some of the scenes. I think I'm just going to
print out that part of the Deluxe info sheet which clearly says to set the masking
to 1:85 to show the next person that asks. On the other hand, it does give me
some satisfaction that we have customers who DO notice these things, so it's
nice to know that they appreciate the extra time & effort I spend to set up custom
masking presets, etc and that I'm not just wasting my time doing that, thinking
nobody really cares anymore.

[Mike Blakesley]

The media now seems to be leaning into the "nobody's seeing it, but that doesn't mean it isn't great" narrative, with a lot of four-star reviews popping up on Facebook today.

So, for a minute there I thought maybe we'd wait it out and see if good word of mouth to save the day, but then...

Our booker told me that one of her other theaters reported they had more walkouts on this movie than they've ever seen. So as far as I'm concerned...bring on the Days of Thunder sequel!