Digger: The Film That Makes You Look Twice

Digger lands in Indian theatres today — and it’s not just a Tom Cruise stunt. It’s a full-scale visual manifesto, shot entirely in VistaVision, the rarefied large-format film process that hasn’t seen a major feature since the 1960s. Warner Bros. Pictures is releasing the Alejandro G. Iñárritu-directed thriller in cinemas and IMAX across India on October 2nd, 2026, with the filmmaker himself having recently unpacked the choice at Whistling Woods International.

Not for spectacle, but for meaning: Iñárritu says the format was chosen to make every frame alive, to force the eye to wander, to reward attention. “Films usually tell you exactly where to look,” he said. “We tried to do the opposite.” The result? A canvas so dense with detail that even the corners of the image are charged with narrative weight.

He drew inspiration from Vermeer, Rembrandt, Velázquez, not just their compositions, but their silence, their stillness. Chivo Lubezki, his collaborator for 35 years, helped craft custom Leica lenses to bring that vision to life. They broke the rules of VistaVision’s original aspect ratio, opting instead for a 1:5 frame. A move Iñárritu calls “a beautiful thing.” The film stars Cruise as Digger Rockwell, alongside Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Robert John Burke, Emma D’Arcy, Burn Gorman, and Sophie Wilde.