Mission: Impossible star Tom Cruise is tackling a very different type of role in Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Digger. Playing the most powerful man in the world, Cruise's Digger Rockwell will embark on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity's saviour before the disaster he's unleashed destroys everything.
As we first reported on ActioNewz.com, Empire has revealed a new look at Cruise's staggering transformation, and it's no exaggeration to say the Oscar-winner looks nearly unrecognisable.
The actor is featured on the publication's latest cover and in a new still that sees him fully embracing this wacky new role. Dawn Baillie has also illustrated a special subscriber cover, though the curtain has yet to be fully pulled back on what to expect from Digger.
Describing his Digger role as "a real leap into the unknown," Cruise told the site, "It took all of my knowledge, from all of the years of every film I made, to be able to play this character and fulfil the ambition of this movie."
Elaborating on who Digger is, Cruise credited Iñárritu with helping him figure out the role. "[He] showed me, 'Here’s kind of the character that I want.' I was like, 'Let’s f***ing go.' I couldn’t wait."
That required Iñárritu to perform the screenplay aloud to Cruise across several days. "I’ve always done that," he recalled. "I want the writer to read me his idea, because then I can see where we’re going. We’re exploring rhythms, and I’m feeling the world. I’m literally an audience. I want to hear his voice. I want to understand, and see the world the way he sees it."
"I can change the voice and as the make-up’s coming on, you start feeling the movement, you put the suit on, the boots, and I find my own rhythm with it," Cruise concluded.
Iñárritu directs Digger from a screenplay by Iñárritu & Oscar-winners Alexander Dinelaris & Nicolás Giacobone, and Sabina Berman, and a story by Iñárritu & Berman. The film is produced by Iñárritu, Mary Parent, Cruise and Michael Sharp, and executive produced by Joshua Grode, Berman, Dinelaris, Giacobone, Jez Butterworth and Emmanuel Lubezki.
Cruise stars in the title role, alongside Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Jesse Plemons. Robert John Burke, Emma D'Arcy, Burn Gorman and Sophie Wilde also star.
Digger was shot entirely in VistaVision and will be released in theaters and on IMAX screens on October 2. It begins rolling out internationally on September 30.