A Shovel on Broxton Avenue, Tom Cruise Brings Digger to Westwood
The star returned to the Directors Village on September 28 for the Los Angeles premiere of Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s oil-tycoon satire.
On Monday, September 28, Tom Cruise worked a red carpet on Broxton Avenue for the Los Angeles premiere of Digger at the Directors Village in Westwood. A giant rust-covered shovel stood at the entrance, and an orange backdrop carried the title in white letters across the street, the Daily Bruin reported.
Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the satirical comedy casts Cruise as Digger Rockwell, an oil tycoon racing to prove he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he unleashed destroys everything. Cruise also produced the film, which was shot in VistaVision. Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons and Emma D’Arcy joined him on the carpet, with Kirsten Dunst and Jessica Alba among the guests.
“It’s the most original film I’ve ever seen, let alone been part of,” Cruise told Extra’s Terri Seymour. Of the tycoon himself, he was blunter. “It’s totally outrageous.”
The night doubled as a homecoming. Cruise walked the same carpet for Without Limits in 1998 and Eyes Wide Shut in 1999. The theater, formerly the Fox Westwood Village Theater, closed in 2024 and reopened this summer under the Village Directors Circle and the American Cinematheque, ahead of a $25 million restoration planned for 2027. Fans and passersby filled the sidewalk outside Diddy Riese and Mr. Noodle, and some UCLA students arrived carrying boxes from campus dining. “I didn’t think there was going to be a movie premiere ten minutes from campus,” first-year student Alisha Redlich told the Daily Bruin.
Digger, from Warner Bros. Pictures, opens in theaters, including IMAX, on Friday, October 2.
