Tom Cruise ventured to CinemaCon to offer a deliciously demented first look at “Digger,” his new movie with director Alejandro González Iñárritu.
“It took 40 years for me to be able to put on the boots of Digger Rockwell,” Cruise said before introducing the new trailer.
And this is definitely Cruise as you’ve never seen him before. In the outrageous comedy, he sports a thick Southern accent (think Ross Perot, but more excitable), a beer belly and thinning white hair that’s been manipulated into an unconvincing combover. He’s an oil baron whose company may have set off an ecological disaster that could also spark a nuclear war. John Goodman portrays an ailing U.S. president who implores Cruise’s character to fix the mess he’s unleashed.
“If we can’t control the course of nature, all that matters is who has got the balls to win this war,” Cruise’s Digger declares at one point.
Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Sophie Wilde, Riz Ahmed and Emma D’Arcy round out the cast. But it’s Cruise’s stunning transformation that may get the most attention.
“We know that he’s fearless — the stunts, the planes, the jumps,” Iñárritu said on stage during Warner Bros. presentation at CinemaCon, the annual convention for movie theater owners. “But I have to say, embodying this character is another kind of fearless.” He went on to praise Cruise’s “high-wire act.”
Alongside Cruise feeding and stroking his dying cat while walking around his mansion with his gut hanging out, there are shots of planes readying for battle and collapsing polar ice caps. The whole enterprise has a manic intensity that is reminiscent of “Dr. Strangelove.”
Cruise told the crowd of cinema operators in Las Vegas that he’s been a fan of Iñárritu since he saw “Amores Perros” in 2000, wearing out his copy of the crime thriller. The two men began discussing a possible collaboration seven years ago while Cruise was filming “Top Gun: Maverick.” The screen legend drove himself to a meeting in the middle of the night on his motorcycle.
“It’s how I get around,” Cruise said. “It’s much faster, and you don’t have to worry about traffic.”
Iñárritu, an Oscar winner for “The Revenant” and “Birdman,” co-wrote the script with Sabina Berman, Nicolas Giacobone and Alexander Dinelaris. “Digger” marks Cruise’s first non-franchise film since 2017, a year in which he starred in the box office hit “American Made” and notorious flop “The Mummy.” In the meantime, he’s been busy with three “Mission: Impossible” installments as well as “Top Gun: Maverick.”
“Digger” carries a massive $125 million production budget, meaning the film is another wild swing for Warner Bros. co-chiefs Pam Abdy and Mike de Luca, who have placed a big emphasis on expensive, auteur-driven swings.
To that effect, “Sinners” was a massive success with $370 million globally against a $90 million budget. And although “One Battle After Another” lost around $90 million to $100 million theatrically, having earned just $210 million against a $140 million budget, it scored a major victory by taking home the best picture Oscar. But, so far, their other gambles lost a lot of money: February’s “The Bride” was a catastrophe of epic proportions with $23 million against a $90 million budget, 2025’s sci-fi satire “Mickey 17” stumbled with $117 million against a $118 million budget, and 2024’s “Joker: Folie à Deux” was rejected with $207 million against a $250 million budget.
Elsewhere in 2026, the studio is unveiling “The End of Oak Street” with Anne Hathaway, “Practical Magic 2” starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, and “The Great Beyond” from director J.J. Abrams.
