After years of scaling buildings, hanging off aircraft and pushing the limits of practical stunt work, Tom Cruise looks set to remind audiences why he remains one of Hollywood’s finest character actors in Digger, the latest film from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu.
Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures have unveiled the first look at the original satirical black comedy, which casts Cruise as the world’s most powerful man. As a catastrophic disaster of his own making threatens humanity, he embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is its saviour before it’s too late.
While Cruise’s recent career has been defined by blockbuster spectacle, Digger appears to mark a welcome return to the kind of fully embodied character performance that earned him acclaim in films such as Magnolia, Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, and Tropic Thunder. Judging by the film’s first footage, Iñárritu is giving the actor one of his meatiest dramatic roles in years.
Cruise leads an impressive ensemble that includes Oscar winner Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Oscar nominee Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg and Oscar nominee Jesse Plemons. Robert John Burke, Emma D’Arcy, Burn Gorman and Australian actress Sophie Wilde round out the cast.
Iñárritu directs from a screenplay he co-wrote with fellow Oscar winners Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolás Giacobone, alongside Sabina Berman, from a story by Iñárritu and Berman. He also produces with Mary Parent, Cruise and Michael Sharp, while Joshua Grode, Berman, Dinelaris, Giacobone, Jez Butterworth and longtime collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki serve as executive producers.
Shot entirely in VistaVision, Digger will be released in IMAX and cinemas across North America on October 2nd, before opening internationally from September 30th, with Australia set for an October 1st release, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
