Why go to such lengths when audiences have historically loved movie musicals? And where are the other big, original live-action musicals of the 2020s? Did the tragic fate of DC’s rather more jukebox affair, Joker: Folie à Deux, really make that much of an impact on Hollywood’s efforts to try to be a little more ambitious about these things, targeting remakes and sure things from the stage instead?
It’s all a bit baffling because so many people love films where the stars break into song and dance at the drop of a hat. Movie musicals became a Hollywood staple for that very reason, and audiences have often turned out for a decent splash of whimsy. Even smaller movies that arguably flopped on release can achieve cult status given enough time, as any Labyrinth or Phantom of the Paradise fan will tell you.
So, yes. Say what you will, it might have actually been fun to see Tom Cruise, John Goodman, Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller, and Jesse Plemons sing and dance in Digger. The quasi-mysterious plot, which seems to be that a very wealthy man has done bad things and wants everyone to think he’s humanity’s savior rather than their destroyer, could have potentially been a lot wilder with some good tunes. And director Alejandro González Iñárritu, who has gained a reputation as a filmmaker who loves exploring the human condition, might have pulled off quite the coup by getting Cruise back into the musical game after he dipped his toe in the 2012 flop Rock of Ages.
Yet, whether Digger turns out to be a disappointment or not, there’ll always be the opportunity to adapt it into a stage musical later on. Maybe then we’ll see what was going on in the collective minds of the internet’s sleuths in the month before the film’s release.
Digger will be released on October 2.
