The first full trailer for “Digger,” the highly anticipated comedy-drama film from director Alejandro González Iñárritu, was released on Monday. Audiences have seen an unknown side of Tom Cruise.
The film will be released worldwide in early October and stars Cruise as Digger Rockwell, the "most powerful man in the world" on a mission to save the world from an ecological disaster.
Before the trailer's release, Cruise spoke at an event in Los Angeles, saying it was unlike any project he had worked on before.
"I've never had anything that could challenge me in this way, and neither has Alejandro. When you see this film, it's completely original," he said.
The trailer features Cruise, with gray hair, a paunch, and a thick Southern accent, as an oil baron whose company may have caused an ecological disaster that could lead to nuclear war. According to the film's tagline, he then "undertakes a frantic mission to prove he's the savior of humanity before the catastrophe he's caused destroys everything."
The supporting cast includes John Goodman, Riz Ahmed, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, and Sophie Wilde.
"What a brilliant movie. It was amazing," the actor said enthusiastically.
About 7 years ago, Iñárritu offered Cruise the role of Digger over several days, where the director read the script aloud to the actor.
"I'm listening to everything that's on his mind, so that I can understand that, and then know how to contribute to it, and bring that collaboration together. It was amazing," Cruise said.
"There's nothing better than standing physically and metaphorically on the edge of a cliff and saying, 'Let's do this. And I trust you, and whatever we do, I know this is going to be a terrifying experience,'" he added.
Iñárritu has said that the idea for Digger came to him while he was finishing his 2015 epic film, "The Revenant," which won him the Oscar for best director, as well as the best actor award for star Leonardo DiCaprio.
“It was right after The Revenant that I had an idea,” the director recalled. Not a script, not a film, just a relentless, recurring obsession that has continued throughout these wild years. I knew who this character was.
"I knew how he spoke, how he survived, how he seduced reality into agreeing with him. But it took me 10 years to make this film, because I wasn't looking for a story. I was looking for the right way to tell it. And it's absurd, it's dangerous, but of course comic, because the source of great comedy is tragedy," he said.
Digger was shot in VistaVision, a high-definition analog process first introduced in the 1950s, which has recently seen a resurgence in popularity, with films such as “The Brutalist” and “One Battle After Another” shot using the technique. ©LAPSI.al
