For Alejandro González Iñárritu, the scariest part of making 'Digger' wasn't the climate catastrophe
Director Alejandro González Iñárritu's latest film, 'Digger,' has underperformed significantly at the box office, marking a career low for star Tom Cruise. Critics have panned the climate-change satire for being overly meta and detached from human emotion.
Why it matters
The film's failure highlights the risks of high-budget, experimental satire and the potential decline in box office drawing power for major stars when projects fail to resonate with audiences.
"Digger" director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu. Jesus Hellin/Getty Images On paper, Alejandro González Iñárritu's new movie had all the trappings of a hit. The Oscar-winning director had assembled a star-studded cast led by the inimitable Tom Cruise . He had a twisty and surprising script that uses satire to tackle ambitious topics, and a talented team that built set pieces impressive enough to match. But he was still nervous about the execution. "The acting tone was the most scary part for me," Iñárritu told Business Insider shortly before the movie's opening weekend. "Tone, you cannot write — you have to feel it and hear it." Four days later, the verdict at the box office came in: "Digger" was a bomb.
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