Rest assured, we’re not here to rehash the weekend’s big box office story — hell, Year The big box office story – about Alejandro González Iñárritu’s stellar production of the Tom Cruise-starring satire “Digger.” Well, not at all.
After earning only $8 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend, any chance of recovering its costs is buried under six feet of dirt and oil (Critical Math: Film officially The production cost $125 million, although sources put the actual price between $160 million to $180 million, and thus it would have needed to be made dramatically around $350 million to break even). For a writer like Iñárritu and a star like Cruise, this kind of modern “Ishtar” won’t prove to be career-ending, but what they choose to do next will still matter a lot.
We have some ideas, at least as they apply to a movie star who has never acted (Hey hey) from the opportunity to use something old, something new, something borrowed, or something blue. Ahead, five IndieWire staffers offer their ideas for course-correcting the cruise.
“Days of Thunder 2”
Recent bias? Sure! But I’m not just saying “Cruise should make a ‘Days of Thunder’ sequel next” because A) I love being right and B) he’s already announced this damn thing, but because I’m one of the “Top Gun: Maverick” loyalists. I know what it’s like to wait decades for a sequel that seemed destined for disaster and then be completely blown away by its final product. Cruz did it once, and he can do it again.
As I’ve noted (before, and endlessly): What made “Maverick” work was that it didn’t stray far from the DNA of the original. — Hello, beach volleyball! — Without Too Incorporating big, bold ideas into the story. This might seem like the easiest and obvious way to make a sequel (especially a legacy sequel), but looking at the film’s brethren, it’s clear how special this formula is. The secret of Tony Scott’s film was always that we actually cared about Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and that his literally high-flying adventures were a way to get close to him, not just an excuse for bigger and louder action. Next: We have to do this for Coal Trickle.
Harness the same next-generation spirit that made “Maverick” such a star-minting machine And Get a candid look at the cost of running a racecar for decades. Cruise’s Cole suffered loss and injury in the first film, so that thing? It is already ready. Of all of Cruise’s early films, this is one with the most potential for “Maverick” level success, but it has to be done right. -Kate Erbland
“Digger 2”
Tom Cruise following up the extraordinary misadventures of “Digger” with “Days of Thunder 2” has filled me with a sadness I felt when Hilary Duff released a theme song for the new “Cat in a Hat” movie following her excellent “Luck…Or Something” album. I would love to see Cruise in a film with the ambition and risk again offered in “Digger,” a film that reminded me that Tom Cruise is not only one of our greatest movie stars, but he’s also one of our greatest actors.
Maybe Cruise has something special in store for the return of Cole Trickle, but if he’s going to return to an old IP, I’d be more curious about where Joel Goodsen (“Risky Business”) is these days (have the Trump years and the tech boom been good to him?), or how TJ McKay (“Magnolia”) is doing in the manosphere. Who’s number wife is Dr. Bill Harford (“Eyes Wide Shut”)?
Hell, Tom, if you want to keep making sequels, give us “Digger 2” and go full meta – make a movie about a movie star playing an actor in a drama about an oil tycoon in a movie that’s an artistic triumph but a commercial disaster, and dig deep into what that means to you as the god of our cinema! I know the new regime at Warner Bros. won’t finance it, but you can finance it yourself – just spend some of that Ethan Hunt money on making something really glorious for all of us who saw “Digger” not as a downfall but as an ascent. -Jim Hemphill
double down
As Cruise grapples with the consequences of “Digger” failing at the box office, he should consider his character’s wisdom that we only have the facts right now… the story has yet to be told. If Cruise and his team treat “Digger” like a failure by bringing it back with legacy sequels and feature action blockbusters, we’ll remember it that way. This will be seen as evidence that Cruise didn’t know his audience and got involved in making a movie he had no business doing. The best way to change the narrative may be to embrace these results and do another project in the same vein as soon as possible.
If Mr. Cruz asked me for my advice, I would say: Find another top-tier writer who isn’t concerned about telling and creating a commercial story. one more This film is equally strange and uncompromising. Even if this is another “Digger” level flop (and it may not be!), suddenly you’ve added another reason why we should celebrate you as Hollywood’s savior. You’re a movie star who can do anything you want, and yet you’re choosing to spend your time and capital getting the audience the budget they need, box office appeal suffering. And it’s unlikely this will ever cut into your other opportunities – you’re still Tom Cruise, and “Top Gun” and “Mission: Impossible” will always be there for you when you need them.
“Digger” didn’t produce the results Cruise was hoping for, but his next actions will determine whether his final obituary writers herald it as an ill-advised footnote or the beginning of an incredible new chapter in a career that was already full of them. -Christian Zilko
Skip the practical stuff and go back to sci-fi
Part of the appeal of Tom Cruise in his “savior of cinema” era is that, between “Top Gun Maverick” and “Mission: Impossible,” he’s been making modern, real-world action movies with practical effects and stunts, pushing his body to new limits with each film in a way very few other actors are dedicating themselves to. This suggests that the “Days of Thunder” sequel could be something more than that, resembling “F1” and linking Cruise to an actual NASCAR deal. But if it’s been a long time since Cruise demonstrated that he can still star in a character-driven movie for adults, it’s been just as long since Cruise has done something that’s more fantastical or that has a bigger concept and selling point beyond “Tom Cruise does this insane thing.”
“Edge of Tomorrow” came out in 2014, and may be one of his best underrated films, and before that he first teamed up with Joseph Kosinski on “Oblivion.” It’s been an even longer time between “War of the Worlds” and “Minority Report,” and clearly we wouldn’t mind seeing him team up with Steven Spielberg again. So we’d love to see him work on another sci-fi, something where he’s in service of a high concept that probably wouldn’t work without him. “Groundhog Day” with an alien invasion doesn’t work unless you have Cruise’s relentless determination (and Emily Blunt’s effortless toughness) anchoring “Edge of Tomorrow.” It honestly might have helped his body to work a little more on green screen for longer periods of time and find himself in another special effects heavy role.
Just, please, not another “Mommy” movie. -Brian Welk
Truly assume the role of a senior statesman
If there’s been any evolution of Tom Cruise behind the scenes that’s felt like a big difference from his glory days, it’s the way he’s taken young talent under his wing. With “Top Gun: Maverick” alone, there were stories of him putting his young colleagues through a movie star boot camp, getting them into military-grade shape and teaching them how to fly. Co-star Glen Powell even said that he sat alone in the theater for six hours to listen to Cruise give a pre-taped seminar on acting on screen.
One of the actor’s most iconic moments was with Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men,” a truly generational defining game. Although Cruise is now a decade older than Nicholson was when they shot the film together, he hasn’t embraced his elder statesman status in the same way. His only films after “Collateral” have been romantic interest films like “Knight and Day” or “Edge of Tomorrow” which have been close two-handers.
While it would be important for Cruise to star in a film on a more equal footing with Miles Teller or Lewis Pullman, the dynamic that would be most interesting would be for Cruise to appear in a film written or directed by one of their disciples. For example, Powell proved himself as a talented screenwriter with the film “Hit Man”. Absolutely Could have been a Tom Cruise vehicle 20 years ago. It would be fascinating to have him and Cruise work together in a deeper capacity.
Fellow “Top Gun: Maverick” star Danny Ramirez also recently completed his directorial debut “Baton,” so Cruise doesn’t have to look far to find young filmmakers he works well with (and who respect) who might have more interesting ideas for what roles audiences might want to see him in next. -Marcus Jones