Rogue One Star Riz Ahmed Says Tom Cruise’s Digger Was His Most Unforgettable Shoot Ever
His energy is electric and his positivity infectious—momentum that’s turning heads and changing the game.
Riz Ahmed is out here doing the rare thing: hyping a movie while actually making it sound weirder and more ambitious than the marketing. The film is Alejandro G. Iñárritu's new one, 'Digger' — with Tom Cruise front and center in a story that is not a sequel, reboot, or brand extension. Yes, that alone is news.
What is 'Digger'?
Iñárritu (Birdman, The Revenant) is back with what Ahmed describes as a wild, totally original tale. Cruise plays the guy who accidentally unleashes a catastrophe on the world and then goes to extremes to make it right, trying to prove he’s humanity’s savior, not its undoing. For Cruise, who has spent most of the last decade in franchise/IP territory, this is a real swing.
Ahmed on working with Cruise and Iñárritu
Ahmed told Collider he had to bite his tongue to avoid oversharing, but he did not hold back about what it felt like to be on set with Cruise and Iñárritu. The vibe: relentless, focused, and kind of overwhelming in a good way.
"Honestly, there’s nothing like that experience I've ever had before, just because of how motivated, focused, hardworking, and inspiring Tom Cruise is on set. The energy he has and the positivity is crazy. It's like nothing I've ever seen before."
On Iñárritu, Ahmed talked about the director’s obsessive detail and big-swing ambition — the kind of environment where every day feels like it might melt your brain a little. He called it inspiring, and also very intense. No surprise there; this is the guy who built Birdman as a one-take fever dream and then dragged cast and crew into the wilderness for The Revenant.
Chivo is painting with gray (a lot of gray)
The teaser already hinted at it, but the behind-the-camera flex is real: Emmanuel 'Chivo' Lubezki is shooting this. He’s the Oscar-winning cinematographer behind Birdman and The Revenant, and Ahmed says watching him work is a trip — the kind of nerdy craft stuff you only hear about when actors can’t help themselves.
"I would be kind of motivated to break character and go up and be like, 'What the hell are you doing? What is this that you've put up?' He uses grays, and he doesn't just have one kind of gray. He has, like, 16 or 10 different shades of gray that he puts up to reflect and create different nuances."
If you’re wondering what that means in English: Lubezki is apparently fine-tuning light with multiple gray tones to control reflections and skin tones at a micro level. It’s fussy, it’s precise, and it probably looks gorgeous. Ahmed says the craftsmanship makes you want to bring your A-game — and also that it’s, again, intense.
Who’s in it and when you can see it
- Cast: Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, Jesse Plemons, Emma D'Arcy, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller
- Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
- Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki
- Release: In theaters October 2 (2026)
- Teaser: Already out there — gorgeous, cryptic, and very much not giving away the game
Bottom line: if the on-set intensity matches the teaser’s mood and Lubezki’s meticulous lighting tricks, 'Digger' could be one of those rare big-swing originals that actually justifies the hype. Now we wait for October 2.