For all the notoriously meticulous preparation Tom Cruise brings to his films, the actor does not believe a movie’s identity can be fully resolved before cameras roll. On his upcoming satirical epic “Digger,” discovering that identity became an ongoing process shared with director Alejandro G. Iñárritu and cinematographer Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki.
Speaking with filmmaker and online creator Patrick Tomasso in a newly released video, Cruise explained how the collaborators found the movie’s visual tone through experimentation, extensive testing, and the interaction between its performances and physical environment.
‘Digger’ Trailer: Tom Cruise & Alejandro G. Iñárritu Promise A “Comedy Of Catastrophic Proportions’
Iñárritu and Lubezki have developed a shared cinematic language over decades of working together, but Cruise said that history did not mean they arrived on “Digger” with all the answers.
“It’s not like, ‘Oh, we know what it’s going to be,’ or Chivo knows,” Cruise said. “We’re exploring, and you see the taste of Alejandro’s eye, of Chivo’s eye, of the design throughout, and discovering the visual tone.”
Cruise considers himself part of that exploration. Rather than approaching his performance in isolation from the cinematography, production design, and editing, he considers how each element contributes to the movie’s character.
“I’m always studying that,” he explained. “I’m part of that so that I understand what’s happening, and I’m exploring the tone.”
That process led the filmmakers to VistaVision, the big-screen format Paul Thomas Anderson recently revived for “One Battle After Another.” Cruise said the “Digger” team rigorously tested it against 65mm before making its choice.
“You look at why VistaVision, why the size of the frame, the choice of VistaVision over 65, and what that looked like,” Cruise said. “We tested 65, and we tested VistaVision, and then they developed the lenses for the film to couple with the VistaVision. So, you’ve never seen VistaVision look like this.”
VistaVision became part of the process of finding the movie, allowing its performances, environments, and visual texture to evolve together while leaving room for unexpected discoveries.
“Performance is not just about me,” Cruise said. “It’s about the environment, it’s setting, it’s tone—all of that is important. You want to prepare, prepare, prepare, and we’re deliberate, but you want surprises. We all had an idea of what it was going to be, but there were always those surprises, and it has an organic feel to it. Those are the things that I enjoy. I enjoy films like that. I like the way that looks.”
But leaving room for discovery does not mean postponing creative decisions until post-production. Cruise said the filmmakers needed to find and protect the movie’s character while the character was still on set.
“You’re on a movie set, and they’re going, ‘We’ll fix it in post,’” Cruise said. “We’re not going to fix it in post. We’re going to fix it right now.”
The VistaVision photography may be the most visible result of the process, but Cruise’s larger point was that “Digger” could not be found through technical decisions alone.
“You can’t write tone on paper in the script,” Cruise said. “You have to discover it for every single movie.”
“Digger” also stars Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons, Riz Ahmed, Sophie Wilde, Emma D’Arcy, Michael Stuhlbarg, and John Goodman. Previous reporting suggested the film is expected to skip Venice, Telluride, Toronto, and the rest of the fall festival circuit, although those plans could still change.
For now, audiences may have to wait until Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures release “Digger” in theaters on October 2, 2026, to see its singular VistaVision look for themselves. Watch Cruise’s full conversation with Tomasso below.
Rodrigo Perez is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Playlist, which he launched in 2007. He has worked in entertainment journalism since 2000, including at MTV, and has written for SPIN, IndieWire, Pitchfork, Complex, Magnet, and various music, film, and entertainment publications over the past two decades.
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