“It took 40 years for me to be able to put on the boots of Digger Rockwell,” Cruise said before introducing the new trailer.

This is definitely Cruise as you’ve never seen him before. In the outrageous comedy, he sports a thick Southern accent, a beer belly and thinning white hair that looks like combover. He’s an oil baron whose company may have set off an ecological disaster that could also spark nuclear war.

John Goodman portrays ailing U.S. president who implores Cruise’s character to fix the mess he’s created.

“If we can’t control the course of nature, all that matters is who has got the balls to win this war,” Cruise’s Digger declares.

But it’s Cruise’s stunning transformation that may get the most attention. “We know that he’s fearless — the stunts, the planes, the jumps,” Iñárritu said on stage during Warner presentation at CinemaCon, the convention for movie theater owners. “But I have to say, embodying this character is another kind of fearless–a “high-wire act.”

Alongside Cruise feeding and stroking his dying cat while walking around his mansion with his gut hanging out, there are planes readying for battle and collapsing polar ice caps.

Cruise told cinema operators in Las Vegas that he’s been a fan of Iñárritu since he saw “Amores Perros” in 2000, wearing out his copy of the crime thriller. The two men began discussing a possible collaboration seven years ago while Cruise was filming “Top Gun: Maverick.”

The star drove to a meeting in the middle of the night on his motorcycle. “It’s how I get around,” Cruise said. “It’s much faster, and you don’t have to worry about traffic.”

Iñárritu, an Oscar winner for “The Revenant” and “Birdman,” co-wrote the script with Sabina Berman, Nicolas Giacobone and Alexander Dinelaris.

“Digger” marks Cruise’s first non-franchise film since 2017, a year in which he starred in “American Made” and the notorious flop “The Mummy.”

In the meantime, he’s been busy with three “Mission: Impossible” installments as well as “Top Gun: Maverick.”

“Digger” has $125 million production budget, which is another wild swing for Warner co-chiefs Pam Abdy and Mike de Luca, who have placed emphasis on expensive, auteur-driven swings.

In 2026, the studio is also unveiling “The End of Oak Street” with Anne Hathaway, “Practical Magic 2” starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, and “The Great Beyond” from director J.J. Abrams.