CinemaCon 2026: An Unrecognizable Tom Cruise is a Deranged Billionaire in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Digger”
Tom Cruise has changed his look for films before—think of the lunatic producer with the overlarge hands he played in the 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder—but his turn in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger might be his most insane transformation yet. Cruise was on hand at CinemaCon to reveal the results of his collaboration with Iñárritu, in which he plays a demented billionaire trying to clean up his colossal mess.
“It took 40 years for me to be able to put on the boots of Digger Rockwell,” Cruise said before introducing the new trailer. The trailer revealed an unrecognizable Cruise, complete with a beer belly, thinning white hair, a miserably raked comb-over, and a southern-fried accent. Digger Rockwell is an oil baron whose company might be responsible for an ecological disaster that could be the first domino that falls, setting off a nuclear war. John Goodman plays the ailing U.S. President, who demands Digger clean up his mess.
Iñárritu told the CinemaCon crowd that he’d been thinking about Digger for nearly a decade, and has been talking to Cruise about it for the past seven years. “Watching Tom Cruise becoming Digger Rockwell, I was not prepared for that,” Iñárritu said. He knew, as everyone does, that Cruise is fearless about stunts, but “embodying this character, this is another kind of fearless… this role could be his most challenging, high-wire act.”
Cruise is one of the most passionate advocates for theaters in the industry, and he told the room of cinema owners and distributors, “I want to thank you all for everything you do…We’re up 23 percent so far. My film family, you know I’m here for you, and I love you.”
Digger is Cruise’s first non-franchise film since 2017, a year in which he starred in the box office hit American Made and The Mummy. Since then, he’s made three Mission: Impossible films and Top Gun: Maverick.
Cruise is joined in the cast by a very fine ensemble, including Sandra Huller, Jesse Plemons, Riz Ahmed, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sophie Wilde, and Emma D’Arcy. Warner Bros. has billed the film as a “Comedy of Catastrophic Proportions.”
Iñárritu, who won Oscars for The Revenant in 2015 and for Birdman in 2014, co-wrote the script with Sabina Berman, Nicolas Giacobone, and Alexander Dinelaris.
Digger is set to hit theaters on October 2, 2026.
Featured image: LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – APRIL 03: Tom Cruise speaks onstage during CinemaCon 2025 – Paramount Pictures invites you to an exclusive presentation highlighting its upcoming slate at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace during CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United on April 3, 2025, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for CinemaCon)
