Here's our very first clip for Alejandro G. Iñárritu's "Digger." There have been two trailers so far, with not much reveal, but this is our first look at a scene from the film, and it comes as Cruise is starting to do the media rounds, promoting Iñárritu's latest.
I don’t really know what to make of this film.
In an interview with Jimmy Fallon on "The Tonight Show," Cruise mentioned that the prosthetics he had to wear on "Digger" took around six hours to apply at first, but that he worked with the makeup department to bring the process down to under an hour.
The marketing has been odd for "Digger." Many people still have no idea what the film is actually about beyond Cruise in heavy old-age prosthetics. Are audiences meant to root for Cruise's character? He plays Digger Rockwell, "the most powerful man in the world," an aging tycoon who becomes the planet's only hope when the U.S. president (John Goodman) assigns him the task of averting a massive ecological disaster — one caused by his own meddling with the glaciers.
All that said, as avid movie fans, we can't help but anticipate this one, and kudos to Cruise for taking a real artistic risk here. This was always meant as an expensive awards play, with money earned slowly over time rather than on opening weekend. I just hope that if it flops, it doesn't push Cruise back into safe sequels — and yes, "Days of Thunder 2" and "Top Gun 3" are already in the works.
In the meantime, Cruise is absolutely gunning for his first acting Oscar. He's high up in the predictions charts despite the film not having been seen yet; press screenings are supposed to start next week. Can he do it? Standing in his way are John Malkovich (“Wild Horse Nine”), Matt Damon (“The Odyssey”), Ryan Gosling (“Project Hail Mary”), and Andrew Scott (“Elsinore”).
"Digger" of course has Cruise front and center in the lead role. The rest of the ensemble includes Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons, John Goodman, Riz Ahmed, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sophie Wilde, and Emma D'Arcy. It hits theaters on October 2 via Warner Bros.
Cregger himself pinpoints that “2001: A Space Odyssey” was an inspiration on “The Flood,” although he steers clear from directly comparing it to Kubrick’s masterpiece.