‘Digger’ Trailer Unveils Tom Cruise Oil Baron, A Role That Took The Actor 40 Years To Prepare

Warner Bros has just dropped the first trailer for the Tom Cruise-starring, Alejandro G. Iñárritu-directed Digger, and, well, buckle up.

Ala Cruise’s major studio boss Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder, the actor transforms into another kind of opposite once again: a very blunt Southern-talking, older potbelly oil baron who may have set off a massive global ecological disaster. His name, Digger Rockwell. He’s the only guy who can fix what looks to be a rapidly melting iceberg crisis, and he’s ordered by the standing U.S. President (John Goodman) to save the day (a Leader of the Free World who is both a combo of Trump and Joe Biden; the latter evident in Goodman’s POTUS falling asleep at the wrong time).

From the looks of this, it’s Doctor Strangelove for the Trump era, or as Iñárritu said in a video introduction reel last Thursday at Warner Bros, “Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourself, because Mother Nature loves motherf*ckers.”

Also in attendance last Thursday was the actor who constantly has the need for speed, especially when it comes to his curiosity for fresh characters, Mr. Cruise.

The 4x Oscar-winning Iñárritu began conceiving Digger, “just after The Revenant, when I had an idea, not script, not a film, just a relentless recurring obsession, that has endured through all these wild years. I knew who this character was.

“The film needed Tom. We wanted to work together since the beginning of the century, said Iñárritu’. “I admired him as an actor for years, and that wasn’t a surprise for me. The surprise was discovering that the human being behind the actor was just as extraordinary as the performances I will see throughout his career.”

“The transformation he went through was astonishing,” added Iñárritu’, with Cruise telling him “‘It took me 40 years to become this character.'”

Cruise was a longtime fan of the director’s breakout 2000 film, Amores Perros, and when he was pitched Digger Rockwell, the Risky Business star said, “Alejandro, he shows me, he’s like, ‘I want you to look like this.’ And it wasn’t like he said, ‘This is the kind of character.’ So, I’m thinking, ‘This guy’s got f*cking balls,’ and I’m like, ‘I can’t wait. Let’s go.'”

Expounding more on his process, Cruise said, “Whether it’s Les Grossman or Interview With the Vampire, Collateral or Risky Business, I’m always asking, ‘How do I communicate this?’ The physicality, the makeup, that is stuff that you find as you are learning how to communicate.”

He added, “You really have to understand the tools, it’s not one size fits all. You have to find the communication, the lenses, the color of the makeup. The level of detail of making a film like this is… Color of the cowboy boots. What are my shorts like? The sets, the color of the sets. They’re beautiful on every single level, and it’s all very… You look at the taste of this man. It’s very special.”

Digger was shot in VistaVision on a 1954-designed camera, and for the production Iñárritu reteamed with his Oscar-winning The Revenant DP, Emmanuel Lubezki.

Cruise exclaimed at the event, “I think when you see Digger, just the level of detail, the skill, the layers of making this film… He’s (Iñárritu) never made something like this before, nor have I.”

We’re told this is the same trailer which was first shown to exhibitors at April’s CinemaCon.

Digger hits theaters on Oct. 2.