{"id":551387,"date":"2026-07-21T00:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T00:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/551387\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T00:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T00:03:11","slug":"tom-cruises-digger-nearly-starred-a-major-international-comedian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/551387\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Cruise&#8217;s Digger Nearly Starred A Major International Comedian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<\/p>\n<p>                                             &#13;<br \/>\n                                                    &#13;<br \/>\n                            &#13;<br \/>\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"gallery-image \" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/intro-1784548721.jpg\" data-slide-url=\"https:\/\/www.slashfilm.com\/2218439\/tom-cruise-digger-nearly-starred-vir-das\/\" data-post-id=\"2218439\" data-slide-num=\"0\" data-slide-title=\"Tom Cruise's Digger Nearly Starred A Major International Comedian: \" width=\"780\" height=\"438\" alt=\"Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell standing on a globe with his shovel in Digger\"\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                    Warner Bros.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It&#8217;s way too early to be talking about awards season, but it&#8217;s pretty clear that &#8220;Digger,&#8221; the latest movie from director Alejandro G. I\u00f1\u00e1rritu, is expected to be part of the conversation. Hailing from Warner Bros., it stars <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slashfilm.com\/2029668\/tom-cruise-honorary-oscar-win\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tom Cruise fresh off an honorary Oscar win that came with a speech offering hope for Hollywood<\/a>. Unfortunately for one major international comedian, it&#8217;s a big movie he narrowly missed out on being a part of.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In a since-deleted post on Twitter (via <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/entertainment\/english\/hollywood\/news\/vir-das-claims-he-auditioned-for-tom-cruises-digger-says-he-was-severely-crestfallen-after-losing-the-role-to-riz-ahmed\/articleshow\/132382950.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Times of India<\/a>), comedian Vir Das, who viewers may recognize from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slashfilm.com\/817585\/the-bubble-review-this-talent-stuffed-comedy-may-meander-but-itll-still-make-you-laugh\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the talent-stuffed comedy &#8220;The Bubble,&#8221;<\/a> revealed that he auditioned to be part of &#8220;Digger.&#8221; Here&#8217;s what he had to say about it:<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Gave two auditions for this. They went with Riz Ahmed. Was severely crestfallen, but that&#8217;s life. This script is insanity, in such a good way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.slashfilm.com\/812394\/riz-ahmed-is-now-an-oscar-winner-and-nobody-knows-about-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Riz Ahmed, who is also an Oscar winner for his short film &#8220;The Long Goodbye,&#8221;<\/a> ended up nabbing the role alongside Cruise in what could be a favorite in several major categories come time for the Academy Awards. The movie centers on the most powerful man in the world (Cruise) as he embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity&#8217;s savior before the disaster he&#8217;s unleashed destroys everything.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Das is an Indian actor, comedian, and musician who has done plenty of work in the business before, but isn&#8217;t quite as well known as Ahmed in North America. Whether or not that had anything to do with the final decision is unknown, but Das didn&#8217;t seem bitter about it. Understandably bummed, but in no way crusty with Ahmed or I\u00f1\u00e1rritu.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                Digger features a star-studded, A-list cast with major awards season potential<\/p>\n<p>                                             &#13;<br \/>\n                                                    &#13;<br \/>\n                            &#13;<br \/>\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"gallery-image \" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/digger-features-a-star-studded-a-list-cast-with-major-awards-season-potential-1784548722.jpg\" data-slide-url=\"https:\/\/www.slashfilm.com\/2218439\/tom-cruise-digger-nearly-starred-vir-das\/\" data-post-id=\"2218439\" data-slide-num=\"1\" data-slide-title=\"Tom Cruise's Digger Nearly Starred A Major International Comedian: Digger features a star-studded, A-list cast with major awards season potential\" width=\"780\" height=\"438\" alt=\"Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell standing next to Riz Ahmed's character in Digger\"\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                    Warner Bros.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It&#8217;s not hard to see why any working actor would be bummed about missing out on a movie like &#8220;Digger.&#8221; Aside from getting to work with a legend like Tom Cruise, Alejandro G. I\u00f1\u00e1rritu has a reputation with getting the most out of actors. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slashfilm.com\/829424\/director-alejandro-g-inarritu-pushed-the-revenants-crew-a-little-too-far\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">I\u00f1\u00e1rritu pushed the crew on &#8220;The Revenant&#8221; a little too far<\/a>, but it ultimately netted Leonardo DiCaprio that Best Actor Oscar he&#8217;d been chasing for a long time. Similarly, Michael Keaton&#8217;s work in &#8220;Birdman&#8221; completely revived his career. Landing a role in a movie like this could go a long way for a guy like Vir Das.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Not for nothing, but the cast that was ultimately assembled is nothing shy of incredible. It includes the likes of John Goodman (&#8220;10 Cloverfield Lane&#8221;), Sandra H\u00fcller (&#8220;Project Hail Mary&#8221;), Michael Stuhlbarg (&#8220;The Shape of Water&#8221;), Jesse Plemons (&#8220;Bugonia&#8221;), Robert John Burke (&#8220;The Last of Us&#8221;), Emma D&#8217;Arcy (&#8220;House of the Dragon&#8221;), Burn Gorman (&#8220;Pacific Rim&#8221;), and Sophie Wilde (&#8220;Talk to Me&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slashfilm.com\/2213389\/tom-cruise-digger-movie-trailer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">trailer for &#8220;Digger&#8221; shows Cruise&#8217;s character trying to save the world, but he&#8217;s the problem<\/a>. It looks like a very timely, darkly comedic tale of apocalypse for the times we live in. Warner Bros. is billing it as &#8220;a comedy of catastrophic proportions.&#8221; Cruise, for all of his accomplishments, has never won an Oscar, aside from his honorary trophy. There&#8217;s a feeling in the air that this movie could finally change that. Being associated with it would not be insignificant.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">For Das, sad to say, it&#8217;s one of those close but no cigar situations. It&#8217;s just the nature of the beast.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Digger&#8221; hits theaters on October 2, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; Warner Bros. It&#8217;s way too early to be&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-551387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}