Exclusive: Alejandro G. Iñárritu reveals the unusual story behind Tom Cruise’s decade-in-the-making Digger

Filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger has been in the works for almost a decade. The filmmaker first began developing the story with Mexican writer Sabina Berman in 2017, but the screenplay kept changing as events in the real world began moving in unexpected directions. The film eventually took a different shape altogether, with Iñárritu turning to a theatrical format to tell the story. [SPOILERS AHEAD].

How the story began

Alejandro and Sabina started writing Digger in 2017. According to the filmmaker, developing a story so closely connected to the present became increasingly difficult as real events continued to change the context around the screenplay.

The film stars Tom Cruise in the title role of Digger Rockwell, but that is not the only character he plays. Tom also plays Curtis, an actor, father, husband and artist who is portraying Digger.

Talking about the film’s long development, Alejandro tells, “This film started 10 years ago with Sabina Berman and I writing the screenplay in 2017. The strange thing about developing a narrative that exists so much in the present, is that reality kept overtaking our fictionalized version of it. Reality that, every day these past nine years, has been surpassing fiction, leaving us behind, forcing us to adjust, making us feel that the ground beneath our feet, like the permafrost, was about to collapse. We learned that reality gives us events, but it’s imagination that allows us to recognize ourselves in them. Somewhere between the two, this movie began.”

The changing story eventually led Iñárritu to rethink how Digger should be presented. He said he found the answer while hiking with his family during his 60th birthday celebrations. He adds, “I was hiking with my family, celebrating my 60th birthday, and it was there when the idea came to me—I felt it in my stomach that I had found the only way to do it: the idea of a theater play in a Brechtian way. It was the best birthday present ever!”

In an interview with HT City, he also says, “The representation of reality is framed in a way in the film that we can totally separate ourselves and see ourselves and laugh at ourselves to find a common ground about a very complicated thing. It has to do with how we tell the story of ourselves and have to approach something like that without fighting each other.”

Tom Cruise leads the cast

Tom stars alongside Oscar winner Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Oscar nominee Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg and Oscar nominee Jesse Plemons. Robert John Burke, Emma D’Arcy, Burn Gorman and Sophie Wilde are also part of the cast.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu directed Digger and co-wrote the screenplay with Oscar winners Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolás Giacobone and Sabina Berman. The story is by Iñárritu and Berman.

The film is produced by Alejandro , Mary Parent, Tom Cruise and Michael Sharp. Joshua Grode, Sabina Berman, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone, Jez Butterworth and Emmanuel Lubezki serve as executive producers.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu reunites with longtime collaborators

Emmanuel Lubezki serves as director of photography, while Conor O’Neill and Oscar winner Stephen Mirrione are the editors. Oscar-nominated costume designer Jacqueline West, Oscar-winning makeup and hair designer Alessandro Bertolazzi and Oscar-nominated casting director Francine Maisler are also part of the team. Dennis Gassner and Richard Johnson serve as production designers, with Oscar-winning prosthetic makeup designer Kazu Hiro and composer Cosmo Sheldrake also joining the film.