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Warner Bros. Drops Tom Cruise Retrospective That Reveals First Look at Digger

The career montage ends with a brief glimpse of Cruise in heavy prosthetics and signals a studio push to position the Iñárritu film as a theatrical and awards-season event.

Overview

  • Warner Bros. released a three-minute Tom Cruise retrospective on June 23 that concludes with roughly 30–41 seconds of the first public footage from Digger.
  • The clip shows Cruise transformed into Digger Rockwell, an older, southern‑accented oil magnate with thinning white hair and a beer belly who delivers the line “When all else fails, you hit ’em with the truth. Hit ’em with the hard truth. Just, bang bang bang!”
  • Digger is directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, co-written by Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone and Sabina Berman, and was shot on 35mm VistaVision with Emmanuel Lubezki as cinematographer.
  • Warner Bros. and the film’s official account set a conventional trailer date of July 13 and a theatrical and IMAX release for October 2, 2026, as part of an unconventional rollout that led with a career montage.
  • Industry coverage is already framing Digger as both a commercial event and a potential awards contender because of Iñárritu’s pedigree and Cruise’s striking, character-driven turn, a shift that could reshape audience expectations for the star.