Why Ed Ruscha made the poster for Tom Cruise's 'Digger': 'The movie blew my hair back'

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Set us as preferred Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu and Pop artist Ed Ruscha have a long history of admiring each other’s work.Twenty-four years ago, a nervous Iñárritu visited Ruscha’s Venice studio to offer him the role of the gynecologist in “21 Grams.” They needed a doctor with noble features and blue, believable eyes.

That plan didn’t pan out, schedule-wise, but the filmmaker and the artist finally found a way to collaborate.The result — a Ruscha-designed poster for Iñárritu’s new film “Digger,” starring Tom Cruise — was unveiled Sunday at an intimate brunch at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, attended by Iñárritu, Ruscha and Cruise, as well as “Digger” actors John Goodman, Jesse Plemons, Michael Stuhlbarg and Ross Hatt.Iñárritu and Cruise laughed as they made a clumsy attempt at a countdown before whipping aside a black velvet curtain to reveal the poster for the first time: a very Ruscha, text-heavy work on a slate gray background with a beige border.A looming ice shelf in the background is surrounded by phrases including, “A Man.

A Plan.A Meltdown,” and “Comedy equals tragedy plus time.”“Well, the movie blew my hair back,” Ruscha said at the unveiling brunch inside LACMA’s new (still unopened) restaurant, with LACMA Director and Chief Executive Michael Govan by his side.

“And not only that, it parted it down the middle.It has since grown back.” The crowd laughed knowingly.

“Digger,” which opens Friday, is a satirical black comedy that follows oil tycoon Digger Rockwell as one of his drilling rigs in Greenland explodes, dislodging an ice shelf that floats away to cause a global disaster.As a dark parable for the dangers of climate change, the film has already proved polarizing, with early reviews coming in mixed.

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