PRODUCTION DIGGER
“I love when you can capture a performance that is evolving, where it’s getting increasingly visceral”
Renaissance paintings, miniature dioramas, VistaVision and specially made lenses. DOP Emmanuel Lubezki breaks down how he crafted the uncanny visual world of Digger
WORDS OLIVER WEBB IMAGES WARNER BROS
I meet Emmanuel Lubezki in a five-star hotel in London, in a rather grand room with a view of one of the city’s most iconic streets. Lubezki, nicknamed Chivo (meaning ‘goat’ in Spanish – a moniker given to him by schoolmates), is a name that has become synonymous with his achievements in cinematography. He holds the record for number of consecutive Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, with three, for Gravity , Birdman and The Revenant . After I walk into the room, Chivo guides me towards one of the large windows. “It’s an amazing view, isn’t it,” he says, pointing to a nearby street where he shot a scene from Children of Men . Like that film, Digger explores a dystopian near future. It’s difficult to
provide a synopsis without spoiling it, but director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s eighth feature film stars Tom Cruise as the eponymous Digger, “the most powerful man in the world, who embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s saviour before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything”. It features an impressive ensemble cast that includes Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Emma D’Arcy, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sophie Wilde and Jesse Plemons. Digger , Chivo says, is unlike any other film he has worked on. CHIAROSCURO ON FILM Iñárritu started planning the film nearly ten years ago, with the script going through several iterations. “We prepped this movie for so long,” says
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