Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ Hits U.S. and U.K. Screens Oct. 2

Tom Cruise is wrapping a global press push for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s black comedy Digger as the Warner Bros. film opens in U.S. and U.K. cinemas on October 2, following a London royal premiere and a Seoul press conference on Oct. 1, Korea JoongAng Daily and Interaksyon (via Reuters) report.

Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, an eccentric oil tycoon who runs the world’s largest energy company from a Texas office and then scrambles to cast himself as humanity’s savior after fossil-fuel operations trigger an ecological—and potentially nuclear—crisis. At the London premiere he called the character “totally outrageous” and unlike anything he had read before, telling Reuters the role says things “some people think, some people can’t imagine thinking.”

The physical transformation has driven much of the advance chatter. Trailers show Cruise with grey hair, facial prosthetics, and a padded silhouette; Korea JoongAng Daily notes the makeup team was led by two-time Oscar winner Kazu Hiro and that Cruise has described cutting chair time to about an hour. Still, he told reporters the hardest stretch was not the prosthetics but a roughly 10-minute monologue shot in a single take—the same “disciplined” training mindset he brings to dance, singing, and music so he can treat his body “like an instrument” when the camera rolls.

Iñárritu, the Oscar-winning director of Birdman and The Revenant, was due in Seoul but canceled for an “unavoidable and unforeseen travel delay,” Warner Bros. said. The ensemble includes Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Sophie Wilde, and Emma D’Arcy. Hüller described nearly a decade of work on the project and praised Cruise’s performance as drawing on decades of craft; D’Arcy highlighted the film’s comic rhythm and musicality.

Global rollout began Sept. 30, with U.S. and U.K. theatrical dates locked for Oct. 2. Early critical reaction has been mixed even as makeup and production design draw praise, Korea JoongAng Daily reports. Cruise brushed past awards speculation, saying the privilege is making films that last rather than chasing trophies—and joking that if Korean audiences will have him, he will return “30 more times.

Interaksyon’s Reuters-sourced premiere report also captures the production’s secrecy culture: Hüller urged audiences to experience the film without spoilers, and Cruise rejected rumors that Digger is a musical even as castmates stressed rhythm and improvisation on set. Stuhlbarg recalled scenes mutating day to day with alternate dialogue and unexpected beats, joking that a future extras disc could barely contain the unused material. That improvisational energy sits alongside Iñárritu’s painterly frame-by-frame control—a tension the cast describes as orchestra-like rather than chaotic.

For readers tracking studio openings on Hollywood, verified as of Oct. 1 reports: Digger arrives in U.S./U.K. theaters Oct. 2; Cruise headlines as Rockwell under Iñárritu for Warner Bros.; London premiere drew royal attendance; Seoul stop focused on training, prosthetics, and the single-take monologue.