Always the hero, never the anti-hero, Cruise could be about to pull off his most audacious move yet. Eschewing his usual, highly enjoyable and bankable roles as a pilot, action hero or superspy, the superstar, reportedly worth $600 million, is starring in a comedy-satire.
In Digger, Cruise plays wealthy oil tycoon Digger Rockwell, who spins the truth after his actions trigger a global disaster and tries to convince everyone he’s the only one who can save humanity.
It’s a genius move by Cruise. He’s been acting for 45 years and he though may not have played a superhero, his films have done heroically well at the box office, with no less than 30 of them grossing more than $100 million.
So how will Digger fare? Not only does the premise and genre sound quite unlike Tom Cruise the brand, but you’ll find it hard to recognise the actor too. Just take a look at the trailer…
Tom Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, the man who broke the world
The central thrust of this black comedy is an environmental disaster of gigantic proportions that’s about to unfold. It’s all Digger’s fault but, oops, ‘It was an accident!’ Can he live up to his name and dig himself out of this one? We’ll have to watch the film to find out, but it's safe to say this monstrously comic character does all he can to save himself and all of humanity, while ultimately protecting his own reputation.
When can you watch Digger?
Tom Cruise’s latest, and possibly most intriguing, film is out on 2nd October.
Meet the stars of Digger
Digger boasts one of the strongest ensembles we’ve seen in a while, with seasoned stars such as John Goodman and Sandra Hüller leading the cast. Seeing them act together and bring these characters to life will be heaps of fun.
Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell
Riz Ahmed as Ganesh
John Goodman as President of the United States
Sandra Hüller as Emma Rockwell
Jesse Plemons as Kenny
Michael Stuhlbarg as the Vice President
Emma D'Arcy as Lina
Sophie Wilde
The Oscar-winning director behind Digger
The Mexican film director behind The Revenant and Birdman has worked with heavyweights Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael Keaton on films that won DiCaprio his first Oscar and helped reignite Michael Keaton’s career. He’s one of the world’s leading film directors, and anticipation for his latest project is off the charts.
Reportedly, Iñárritu first had the idea for Digger more than 10 years ago, and began discussing it with Tom Cruise as far back as 2019.
Could Digger secretly be a musical?
Cruise fans are excited to see the megastar in an entirely new genre and are vibing with the thought of him without guns, gadgets, or pilot controls. It’s wild to think of him in an entirely new genre after all these decades and that’s led to some pretty crazy theories as to what the twist of Digger might be, with some bandying the term ‘musical’ around pretty freely. One fan has even dubbed it a Crusical.
We’re not sure what led people on the internet down this path. We did a deep dive into the latest Warner Bros trailer for evidence, but found none. So we can only put it down to fanciful conjecture. Digger the Musical is a fun thought though.
Why Cruise couldn’t resist Digger
A fan of Amores Perros, Cruise had long wanted to work with Iñárritu and was said to be drawn to Digger precisely because it’s so unlike anything he’s ever done before. Satire and politics are new genres for the action-movie superstar and it’ll be fascinating to see how he inhabits the role of greed- and power-obsessed Digger Rockwell.
How Tom Cruise became Digger Rockwell
Digger, the oil tycoon, is heavyset, older, and infinitely more worn-looking than the youthful 64-year-old actor playing him. With Oscar-winning prosthetic makeup artist Kazu Hiro (Darkest Hour) credited on Digger, we imagine the Cruise-to-Digger transformation was intense, requiring hours in the makeup chair.
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