Aussie director wakes up Netflix with sleeper hit ‘The Dig’
Simon Stone explains how he turned a dusty archaeological dig into an engrossing piece of cinema that has improbably topped the Netflix charts.
Australian director Simon Stone, right, on the set of The Dig with director of photography Mike Eley, left, and actor Ralph Fiennes.
Something slightly strange happened this past month on Netflix’s list of the top 10 most-watched films in Australia, Britain and beyond. Among the usual rota of true-crime, teen flicks and big-budget US releases was an unexpected, improbable sleeper hit.
The Dig doesn’t sound much like a box-office barnstormer. It’s ostensibly a film about a group of men in three-piece suits with trowels and teaspoons, excavating the Anglo-Saxon burial site of Sutton Hoo in a rustic corner of 1930s prewar England.
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