Tom Cruise’s Digger Reveal Turned Heads — Brad Pitt’s Next Film Is Just as Daring and Original

Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt managed to turn December 18, 2025 into a two-hander: Cruise blasted out a new movie reveal, and Pitt quietly had a birthday. One went full megaphone, the other kept it low-key. And somehow they both still ended up in the same conversation about movie-star one-upmanship.

Cruise fires the starting gun: 'Digger' revealed

On December 18, Cruise rolled out the title, poster, and first teaser for his Alejandro G. Inarritu collaboration, 'Digger' — pitched as a 'comedy of catastrophic proportions.' That phrase tells you plenty: expect chaos, precision, and Cruise sprinting toward something on fire while Inarritu pokes at existential nerves.

Lock this in: 'Digger' hits theaters October 2, 2026.

Pitt turns 62, keeps it personal

Same day, Brad Pitt turned 62 and reportedly marked it quietly with Ines de Ramon — she turns 33 on December 19 — plus a small circle of close friends. No press walk. No balloons that spell out BRAD. Just a grown-up birthday between two people who would rather not turn it into an event.

Back to Cliff Booth: Fincher, Tarantino, Netflix, and a giant budget

Pitt, meanwhile, is right back in Cliff Booth mode — the stoic stuntman from 'Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.' The sequel is called 'The Adventures of Cliff Booth,' and this time David Fincher is directing from a Quentin Tarantino script. Netflix scooped up the script in April 2025 and hired Fincher, with Pitt pushing hard to get Fincher on board. It started life as 'The Continuing Adventures of Cliff Booth' before someone wisely shortened it.

• Story and setting: It is a period comedy-drama set in 1977, eight years after the 1969 events of 'Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.' Cliff is still in Hollywood, still solving problems, the way only Cliff can.
• Cast: Brad Pitt; Timothy Olyphant returns as James Stacy; plus Scott Caan, Elizabeth Debicki, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Carla Gugino, Holt McCallany, JB Tadena, Corey Fogelmanis, and Karren Karagulian.
• Production: Filming began July 28, 2025 in California; the shoot is expected to wrap by mid-January 2026.
• Budget: Around $200 million — Tarantino has called it the biggest budget he has ever been associated with, per reporting that tracks with What’s on Netflix.
• Release: Planned for 2026 with a limited theatrical run and Netflix. Internally it has been eyeing summer 2026.

Cruise and Pitt: same sport, different playbook

'You gotta understand, Tom and I are... we walk in different directions. He’s North Pole. I’m South. He’s coming at you with a handshake, where I may bump into you, I may not, you know?'

That is Pitt, blunt as ever, explaining the Cruise contrast. And to be clear, he also gave Cruise real credit — he called him a good actor who pushes the movie forward and said you have to respect that.

Would they team up again?

Pitt says yes — with a limit. At the Mexico City premiere of 'F1' on June 9, 2025, he said he would work with Cruise again as long as it is not another death-defying stunt circus. The gist: he is not hanging off airplanes. If Tom wants to do something on the ground, Brad is game.

Cruise has been nothing but complimentary in return. At CinemaCon 2025, he hyped Pitt’s 'Formula 1' movie with Jerry Bruckheimer and Joe Kosinski and said he could not wait to see it. He even vouched for Pitt behind the wheel — he said Pitt is a very good driver and reminded everyone that they used to go race go-karts together. Pitt later grinned and admitted those 90s go-kart nights were real — and that Cruise got the better of him in the end.

So who has the edge in 2026?

If both movies land, 2026 could actually feel like an old-school star-power year. Cruise has an Inarritu chaos-comedy dated for October 2. Pitt has Fincher directing a Tarantino-scripted Cliff Booth sequel headed for select theaters and Netflix sometime in 2026. Smart money? Honestly, both bets are interesting — one is auteur chaos with Cruise velocity, the other is a high-dollar, character-first sequel that lets a movie star just be a movie star. Your call which gamble is smarter.