Tom Cruise paid a visit to CinemaCon for a deliciously crazy premiere of his new film, Digger, with director Alejandro González Iñárritu.
“It took me 40 years to get into Digger Rockwell’s boots,” Cruise said before introducing the new trailer.
And this is definitely a cruise like you’ve never seen before. In this outrageous comedy, he sports a thick Southern accent (think Ross Perot, but more excitable), a beer belly, and thinning gray hair worked into an unconvincing comb. He is an oil tycoon whose companies have caused environmental disasters and possibly even nuclear war. John Goodman plays an ailing U.S. president who pleads with Cruz’s character to fix the mess he’s caused.
“If we can’t control the course of nature, then all that matters is who gets the ball to win this war,” Cruise’s Digger declares at one point.
Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Sophie Wilde, Riz Ahmed and Emma Darcy round out the cast. But it’s Cruise’s surprising transformation that will garner the most attention.
“We know he’s fearless, whether it’s stunts, planes or 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 a different kind of fearlessness.” He went on to praise Cruise’s “tightrope act.”
In addition to shots of Cruise walking around the mansion with his stomach exposed, feeding and petting a dying cat, there are also shots of planes preparing for battle and polar ice sheets collapsing. There’s a manic intensity to the whole enterprise that’s reminiscent of “Dr. Strangelove.”
Cruz told a crowd of movie theater owners in Las Vegas that he has been a fan of Iñárritu ever since he watched “Amores Perros” in 2000, when he wore out a copy of the crime thriller. The two began discussing a possible collaboration seven years ago when Cruise was filming Top Gun: Maverick. The film legend rode his motorbike to the meeting in the middle of the night.
“That’s how we move,” Cruz said. “It’s much faster and you don’t have to worry about traffic.”
Iñárritu, who won Oscars for The Revenant and Birdman, co-wrote the screenplay with Sabina Berman, Nicolas Jacobone and Alexander Dinelaris. “Digger” will be Cruise’s first non-series film since 2017, when he starred in the box office success “American Made” and the infamous flop “The Mummy.” In the meantime, he’s been busy filming three “Mission: Impossible” films and “Top Gun: Maverick.”
“Digger” cost a whopping $125 million to make, meaning it’s another wild ride for Warner Bros. co-chiefs Pam Abdi and Mike De Luca, who have focused on expensive, writer-driven swings.
In that sense, “Sinners” was a huge success, earning $370 million worldwide against a $90 million budget. One Battle After Another made only $210 million on a budget of $140 million, losing about $90 million to $100 million in theatrical box office revenue, but it was a huge win, winning the Best Picture Oscar. But so far, their other gambles have cost them big bucks. February’s The Bride was a disaster at $23 million on a $90 million budget, 2025’s sci-fi satire Mickey 17 stumbled at $117 million on a $118 million budget, and 2024’s Joker: Folie à Deux was rejected for $207 million on a $118 million budget. Budget of $250 million.
Elsewhere in 2026, the studio is set to release The End of Oak Street starring Anne Hathaway, Practical Magic 2 starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, and J. J. Abrams’ The Great Beyond.
