Here are some photos from the big LA premiere of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger last night. Tom Cruise was there, obviously, and so were all of his costars. Tom has really gone all out to promote Digger and treat this film like a potential Oscar contender. The buzz for Digger was so, so strong several months ago. But then… people saw the movie. Press screenings began, and the word coming out of last week’s London premiere was that the film is “ambitious” but not particularly good. Page Six Hollywood broke down Digger’s falling Oscar chances:

Tom Cruise was in typically rakish form as he debuted red hair and flaunted height-boosting shoes while posing with Prince William and Kate Middleton at the London premiere of his new movie “Digger” [last] week. Breaking through the royals’ natural froideur, the Hollywood star got them to crack a smile on Tuesday as part of his p.r. blitz ahead of the film’s opening this coming Friday. But even though Tinseltown remains in his thrall, Page Six can reveal that Cruise’s Oscar hopes for the movie — about a wealthy oil tycoon forced to fix a global environmental catastrophe he caused — have already plummeted.

“There was a press screening in LA last week — and the press reactions were mixed at best,” an industry insider told us. “Then you saw its placement on all the Oscar lists drop after that screening. Tom is still beloved, but I don’t think people want to see him in a fat suit and makeup — they want to see him as the action hero.”

Indeed, Debra Birnbaum, editor of leading awards prediction platform Gold Derby, confirmed that Cruise’s Oscar prospects had fallen following last Saturday’s screening at the Steven J. Ross Theater on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, Calif.

“Despite Tom’s full-court p.r. press, they just weren’t jumping on the couch for his performance,” she told Page Six. “His odds on GoldDerby.com have tumbled since the embargo [for social media movie reviews] lifted, leaving him a big hole to dig himself out of — he’s dropped among our experts and overall, including users, too.”

[From Page Six]

Here’s the thing – I actually like that Tom still takes big swings creatively. I like that he saw Iñárritu’s work and wanted to do something with him. I appreciate that Tom Cruise, of all people, still has an offbeat, artistic side which he nourishes with these kinds of films. And I hope that’s enough for him – that he made the film he wanted to make, and maybe it didn’t land and that’s okay. But yeah, he’s not winning an Oscar for this.

I’m also including pics of Jesse Plemons and his wife Kirsten Dunst, Sandra Huller (wearing the worst dress I’ve ever seen), John Goodman, Emma D’Arcy (pajama pants & a blazer??), and Riz Ahmed and his wife Fatima Farheen Mirza (gorgeous).

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.