By all accounts, Tom Cruise’s next big-screen effort is unlike anything else in his 45-year career, and also looks unlike any other 2026 movie releases, standing far apart from his recent years invested in Mission: Impossible’s Ethan Hunt. The actor rarely dons extensive makeup and prosthetics for roles, but fully transformed for the role of oil tycoon Digger Rockwell, with total Les Grossman vibes all over this thing. We don’t have a new trailer yet, but we do have several new videos showing off Digger’s (digitally enhanced) skills with a soccer ball.

We’re definitely waiting to see more from Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new movie after that bonkers first trailer, but I am fully embracing any and all ad campaigns utilizing this character for moments that won’t be in the film. Case in point, Warner Bros. is promoting the World Cup with Digger, giving audiences that much more of this loquacious and endlessly confident personality to soak up before the movie gets here.

Check out the video below, which features both Digger Rockwell and Tom Cruise. How did they do it?!? (Amazement heightened for dramatic effect.)

I can see why this probably seemed like a good 1:1 connection to make. Digger Rockwell is described as being the most powerful man in the world, so it only makes sense that he would be promoting the most popular sport on the planet. (You’re probably not gonna catch ol’ Digger waxing poetically about the next Pillow Fight Championship event.) I guess when you’re one of the richest people of all time, you have that much more time to practice your ball-handling skills.

The video promo below is sans Cruise himself, but offers up quite a bit more fancy footwork with the ball that’s fun to watch, even if it’s abundantly clear that Digger is not actually hitting all those perfect moves himself. My brain can gloss over the somewhat unnatural way the ball balances on his head and feet, because I’m just that invested in this dude’s whole vibe.

Beyond all the excellent shots of that wonky-looking cat, I also like that we get a peek into Digger’s mindset in this one, even if it’s not the most mysterious or hidden.

Which is why the bazillionaire is the only person suited to take a self-appointed global savior role, as he attempts to thwart an all-consuming disaster that he himself was responsible for unleashing. So maybe he’s not the most likeable guy from the onset. But I’m already thinking this character deserves sequels and TV spinoffs. Assuming Tom Cruise wants to keep bringing that WTF look out.

The video below was the first one shared, preceding those above by a couple of days, and it almost seems tame in comparison.

Digger, which already got big props from Cruise’s M:I 3 director J.J. Abrams, is set to hit theaters on October 2. And it’s going to be hard for me to stop hearing the character’s slightly unnerving way of repeating “Olé” the way he does at the end of that second video.

The 2026 movie schedule marks what might be Tom Cruise’s most ambitious performance yet. Cruise and Alejandro G. Iñárritu are teaming up for Digger – a comedy about the world’s most powerful (and chaotic) businessman who must prevent a global disaster. Cruise really had to go through a physical transformation to play the titular Digger Rockwell, and he’s a sight to behold in the wild trailer. Funny enough, Cruise delightfully dropped an F-bomb when he first saw what had been envisioned for the character’s look.

Earlier this year, Cruise talked about playing Digger and how, in hindsight, the last 40 years of his career had been preparing him for the role. The leading man reiterated that during an event for the trailer launch, which CinemaBlend was fortunate enough to attend. Cruise said he’d “never had something that could challenge me in this way” and that it was uncharted territory for Iñárritu as well. As for the first time, Cruise got a gander at his director’s vision for Rockwell, he made a humorously bold assertion:

Honestly, that's an understandable take. As has been shown, Cruise sports prosthetics, a wig and a faux belly in order to play Rockwell, and he’s more than committing to the bit. That shouldn’t be all that surprising since this is the same actor who effortlessly portrayed the eccentric Les Grossman from Tropic Thunder. Digger definitely has shades of Grossman, especially when it comes to bravado. However, as the Top Gun icon explained, the process of landing on a character varies by project:

That level of cerebral thinking is why Cruise has done such great work over the course of his illustrious career. He understands that there are different strokes for different folks – or characters in this case. And it’s because of that approach that Lestat de Lioncourt differs from Les Grossman, who differs from Frank T.J. Mackey, who differs from Jerry Maguire. All in all, given Cruise’s approach to his latest role, fans should be in for something special.

It would seem that the Rain Man alum’s cast and crew were also taken with his work on set as well. During this year’s CinemaCon, Iñárritu praised his star’s commitment to his craft and emphasized just how big a swing he was taking with this role. Emma D’Arcy – one of Cruise’s co-stars, also praised his work, and they even said they were taking notes on set.

All signs point to Tom Cruise giving a performance that’s a true tour de force, and I’m eager to see it on the biggest screen possible. Per the footage, I’m expecting Cruise – as Rockwell – to chew some scenery and drop his fair share of F-bombs. Be sure to check out Digger when it opens on October 2.

For some time now, Tom Cruise has been teasing his next movie, Digger, a dark comedy directed by Oscar winner Alejandro Iñárritu. Some footage dropped earlier this summer and, based on that, Cruise’s titular character mirrored Tropic Thunder’s Les Grossman. Well, we finally have the first official trailer for the movie, and it’s somehow even more bonkers than I imagined. There are plenty of striking images and funny quotes, but I just can’t get the image of Digger’s cat out of my head.

The trailer quickly establishes the aging Digger Rockwell as an eccentric tycoon, who enjoys a lavish lifestyle. However, he’s quickly thrown for a loop when he learns that one of his drilling projects has started an environmental chain reaction that could spell the end of life on earth. What strikes me about this footage, which can be seen above, is the sheer scale of Iñárritu’s vision. Shots of floods, aircrafts and missile launches abound, and it’s clear that this is going to be the Birdman director’s biggest film to date.

Ironically, some of this material feels like it would be fitting for an installment of Mission: Impossible, which Cruise has since stepped away from. Personally, I’d imagine Cruise and Iñárritu are fully aware of that and may even be looking to lampoon elements of such blockbusters in that regard. Aside from the spectacle, though, there also seem to be plenty of quirky character moments acted out by the film’s capable cast.

The member of the ensemble that I can’t stop looking at, though, is Digger’s cat, who’s seen better days. In fact, it’s established early on that the feline doesn’t have long to live, which upsets his master. To say that this one-eyed furry friend is quite a sight would be an understatement, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up being more essential to the narrative than teased.

Aside from the cat, though, what also sticks out to me is something quite obvious – Tom Cruise really seems to be going for it with this performance. He’s chewing up all kinds of scenery here, from trying to feed his pet peanut butter in bed to using his physical endowment to illustrate his drilling work. As Cruise explained at CinemaCon earlier this year, Rockwell was a role 40 years in the making for him, and he even dropped an enthusiastic F-bomb when he saw what the character would look like.

Iñárritu, who also co-wrote the script, praised Cruise’s performance as well, opining that while he’d pulled off plenty of massive stunts on camera, this role may have been his biggest risk. Of course, the Revenant helmer also deserves credit, as this is yet another major swing for him as well. Comedy and spectacle seem to be colliding in a great way, based on this trailer, and it’s also already clear that the director and his co-writers are injecting a bit of social commentary into this environmentally and politically-tinged story.

Of course, we also have to mention the rest of the cast, which includes John Goodman (who was mildly injured amid production) playing the President of the United States. Honestly, I can’t think of a better role for the incomparable Goodman in a romp like this one. Also part of the ensemble are Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed, Jesse Plemons, Sophie Wilde, Michael Stuhlbarg and Emma D’Arcy, who praised Cruise’s work.

All in all, this first trailer delivers, as it expertly establishes the tone, lays out the premise and highlights its leading man in a big way. I can’t wait to see what Tom Cruise brings to the role of Rockwell and, if this footage is any indication, there’s a chance it could be Cruise’s finest performance of this decade. He’s sure to be a scene-stealer, but I also expect that cat to delight (and somewhat unnerve) audiences as well.

Digger opens in theaters on October 2 as part of the 2026 movie schedule.

Tom Cruise has played a variety of roles throughout the course of his career, but his latest is shaping to be one of his most transformative performances to date. His 2026 movie schedule entry is Digger, the newest film from Oscar-winning filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Details on the film have been kept tightly under wraps, and fans haven’t gotten to see much footage. Now, though, the public has been treated to yet another look at the film, and this latest look at the titular character is giving major Les Grossman energy.

Warner Bros. recently released a retrospective that covers Cruise’s career thus far, and it’s a nostalgia-inducing piece of work. As part of that video, fans received a fresh look at Digger, in which Cruise plays the titular Digger Rockwell, who’s an incredibly powerful man. Check out the video below to see the tease:

Per the few plot details that have been released on Iñárritu’s latest film, which he co-wrote, it centers around Digger as he tries to prevent a disaster from destroying humanity. During his appearance at CinemaCon 2026, Cruise talked about taking on the role, saying it “took 40 years for me to be able to put on the boots of Digger Rockwell and to reveal the many layers of the character.”

Iñárritu also hyped up his leading man during the event and acknowledged that while Cruise has done plenty of stunts in his time, “embodying this character is another kind of fearless.”

It’s hard to disagree with that assertion based on the footage that’s been shown thus far. What really strikes me is the level of physicality Cruise seems to be bringing to the role. So it's fitting that the official poster shows the character in mid-action. Check out the one-sheet Cruise shared:

Footage was also screened at CinemaCon, and the reception was positive, with many noting the transformation Cruise underwent for the role. Emma D’Arcy, one of Cruise’s co-stars, also gushed about his work and called the experience of watching him “unparalleled.” In addition to D’Arcy, the ensemble includes other talented stars, including Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons, Riz Ahmed, Sophie Wilde, Michael Stuhlbarg and John Goodman. Needless to say, Iñárritu assembled a strong group of performers.

I wasn't sure what Cruise would do next when he was finished with the Mission: Impossible franchise, but I think this is a great first post-M:I production. What I'm hoping is that this marks Cruise's return to more character-centric pieces. Not to say that Ethan Hunt isn't a well-developed character, but I'm hopeful Cruise will get back to his somewhat smaller roots.

Digger opens in theaters on October 2, 2026. It’s far too early to say whether this could end up being one of Tom Cruise’s best movies. However, I’m truly hopeful that this will end up being something special. In the meantime, check out Cruise’s performance as Grossman by streaming Tropic Thunder with a Paramount+ subscription.

One of the most intriguing upcoming 2026 movies on the way has to be Tom Cruise's comedic turn for Digger. The comedy from Birdman and The Revenant filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu will feature Cruise as we’ve never seen him before: sporting gray hair, wrinkles and a “firebrand Foghorn Leghorn accent," according to first reactions to footage shown at CinemaCon. One of the movie’s actors just hyped up Cruise’s performance as Digger Rockwell even more.

Emma D’Arcy is best known for playing Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon, but they also has a supporting role in Digger alongside Cruise and Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons, John Goodman and Riz Ahmed. When talking about the movie, they had this to say about it:

Cruise has been best known lately for starring in big-budget action movies like Top Gun: Maverick and the Mission: Impossible films where he’s pulled off some crazy stunts. But, when he was starting out in the 1980s and 1990s, he regularly was critically-acclaimed for his acting chops more than being Hollywood’s daredevil.

D’Arcy’s comments about working with Cruise and Iñárritu implies we are really in for a treat with Digger, especially regarding the lead’s performance. The House of the Dragon actor literally had their notebook out during filming afterall. As Emma D’Arcy also added during an interview with Entertainment Weekly:

In Digger, Cruise plays a fictional oil tycoon who’s apparently a “massive jerk” to anyone he comes in contact with except for his frail old cat. The movie’s writer/director has said the actor’s performance in the role is “another kind of fearless” than we’ve come to expect from the actor, adding that he thinks it might be “his most challenging” yet. You can check out the first look at the movie below:

As we look forward to Digger, one of the movie’s other actors, Jesse Plemons has also commented on the film as well. He called it “one of the strangest, funniest, most tragic scripts I’ve read” – and that’s coming from a guy who was in Bugonia. He also called it “a kind of modern-day Dr. Strangelove thing” while saying it’s “something else entirely” in the same sentence.

This is definitely enough to get me excited for Digger after the mysterious marketing thus far. Digger is coming to theaters on October 2. If you follow House of the Dragon, catch Emma D’Arcy in Season 3 starting on June 21 via HBO Max subscription.

I’ve watched Tom Cruise dive into action movies for the majority of my lifetime. The characters have all been slightly different, but they all pretty much have high-octane stunts and running really fast in common. Only twice during my formative years can I remember seeing the actor on the big screen trying something really different. The first was when he played Frank T.J. Mackey in P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia and frogs rained from the sky. The second was when he popped into Tropic Thunder and demanded dancing and “fat fingers.” (Though people sometimes cite the flop Rock of Ages as another eclectic role, I haven't seen it.) Now, there’s Digger.

What Tom Cruise Said About His First Post M:I Movie Venture

It’s still hard to believe Ethan Hunt is done for good, but after the release of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, Cruise was looking to do something different as his followup. He said at CinemaCon 2026 that it literally took him “40 years."

While audiences were treated to a first-look at the movie, Cruise also admitted even he feels “the movie is wild,” and director Alejandro G. Iñárritu said he “was not prepared for” Tom Cruise’s transformation, also noting:

Of course, anyone can say anything they want about an upcoming 2026 movie release that no one has really seen footage from. Putting your money where your mouth is can be another matter entirely. However, first-look audiences seem blown away by Cruise in particular.

Over And Over Again, First Reactions Say He’s Doing Something Different

Journalists are able to sit in a balcony overlooking CinemaCon to witness early footage themselves, and one resounding chorus from the crowd was that this is Cruise doing something completely different. Someone noted his “Foghorn Leghorn accent,” which caught my eye, but literally just look at these responses:

• Variety: ​​ "And this is definitely Cruise as you’ve never seen him before.”
• THR: "In the footage, Cruise is unrecognizable, sporting gray hair, wrinkles and a gut as he struts around his mansion and nurses his sick cat."
• EW: "He looks way more like Garry Marshall than like Ethan Hunt. He also acts like a massive jerk to everybody he interacts with, except his frail old cat. "
• Indiewire: Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell was something else. Cruise in Alejandro Inarritu’s film Digger plays an aging oil tycoon with gray hair, wrinkles, a big paunch belly, a firebrand Foghorn Leghorn accent, and no patience for the cataclysmic environmental event that his project has caused.

I think a lot of people love to watch Tom Cruise do death-defying stunts on the big screen, but he's been at it for so long it's difficult to remember there was a time in his career when the roles he took on were broader. They were a different kind of risk for the actor. While I'd still love to see him in Top Gun 3 (and maybe even an F1 spinoff should that A+fan idea pan out), there's a whole of roles out there I think he can still dominate. Now is the time.

Last month, movie fans around the world were delivered a very strange tease. A poster and silhouette-filled trailer arrived online promoting a new Alejandro G. Iñárritu film titled Digger starring Tom Cruise, and while we know it has an October release date and a tagline calling it “A Comedy Of Catastrophic Proportions,” we know virtually nothing else about it. You can certainly color me among those who were intrigued – and after reading the latest comments about the project from one of Cruise’s co-stars, I’m downright excited.

In a Variety profile, Bugonia star Jesse Plemons only very briefly discusses his work on Digger, but what he had to say should delight cinephiles everywhere. While we know that the movie is a comedy, what kind of comedy will it be? After offering up a wonderful mix of adjectives describing the Iñárritu creation, the actor compared it to a comedy classic: Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb. Said Plemons,

Having made multiple movies with the wild writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos, Jesse Plemons is in a position to know a lot about movies that are off kilter and offer up a mix of tones, and it sounds like he’s right back at that kind of work in the making of Digger.

As for the Dr. Strangelove comparison, I love to hear it, as Kubrick’s film is one of the all-time great comedies… but I also wish that there was some kind of follow-up explaining what he means. Does he make the comparison in the sense that it’s a movie that is built with multiple protagonists playing their own parts in the larger plot? Or is he referring to the world-ending stakes in play? It’s hard to know… and the idea of “and then it becomes something else entirely” makes it even harder to track.

Jesse Plemons is part of an awesome ensemble in the film that includes Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed, Michael Stuhlbarg, and John Goodman among others, but it has Tom Cruise in the titular role of Digger Rockwell, and the Breaking Bad actor apparently got a real kick out of getting to see him bring to life a brand new character (something audiences haven’t seen since 2017’s American Made):

We still have a while to go before Digger arrives in theaters everywhere – the movie currently dated for October 2 – but we’ll surely get more insight between now and then regarding what to expect from the Tom Cruise/Alejandro G. Iñárritu team-up. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for all of the latest, most exciting updates as we get closer to the feature on the 2026 movie release calendar.

For the past couple of decades, Tom Cruise has primarily stayed in the realm of action movies, with the Mission: Impossible franchise and the uber-successful Top Gun: Maverick taking up most of his time. However, that’ll soon change when the Hollywood icon leads Digger, directed by one of Hollywood's most interesting filmmakers, Alejandro G. Iñárritu.

More and more details are finally emerging for this secretive movie, and we finally got a full trailer showing us way more than anything we've seen before. It looks pretty awesome, and it's going to be so fun to see Tom Cruise as this wild character on the 2026 movie schedule. Here's what we know so far, including the new trailer.

What Is The Digger Release Date?

2026 is shaping up to be one of the biggest movie years in quite a while, and before the year comes to an end, we’ll get to see what Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Tom Cruise have cooking, as the Digger release date has been set for October 2, 2026.

I have little doubt that Iñárritu will likely be in the discussion, at least, for another Best Director Oscar nomination. He's going to have some stiff competition, as he is one of many Oscar-nominated (and winning) directors with big movies coming out this year, including Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, and Denis Villeneuve.

The Digger Trailer

We've been waiting forever for the Digger trailer, and it finally arrived in July, and it's even wilder than I expected. I knew this would be a wacky movie (in the best way), but even I was surprised just how out there it is. We also get our first look at the other actors in the movie, including a lot of John Goodman, whose scenes are giving serious Dr Strangelove vibes, Sandra Hüller, who can be so funny in her dry, German way, and Riz Ahmed, who may just steal the show.

My anticipation is definitely growing after this bonkers trailer.

The Digger Cast

As Tom Cruise has shown time and time again, he is more than capable of carrying a movie on his own. However, he won’t have to do all the heavy lifting here, as Alejandro G. Iñárrituhas put together an absolutely incredible group of actors that includes Oscar winners, Emmy winners, and even a member of the Saturday Night Live Five-Timers Club. It's especially fun that we'll get to see John Goodman play the President of the United States again, after he briefly did on The West Wing a quarter-century ago (albeit with a very different style here).

Here’s everyone who’s joining the Digger cast:

• Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell
• Sandra Hüller
• John Goodman as the President of the United States
• Michael Stuhlbarg
• Jesse Plemons
• Sophie Wilde
• Riz Ahmed as an assistant to the President
• Emma D'Arcy
• Robert John Burke
• Burn Gorman

What Is Digger About?

Though a lot of specifics are being kept under wraps at the moment, Deadline did share a simple synopsis for Digger back in August 2024. The movie, which was untitled at the time of the report, will center on Digger Rockwell, the most powerful man in the world, as he embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s savior. From the trailer, it seems to involve nukes, Antarctica, and a lot of stress for those in charge.

What makes this whole concept even more interesting is the fact that the humanity-killing disaster he is trying to prevent is one of his own making. We’ve seen Cruise save the world countless times over the years, be it from aliens, rogue nations, mummies, and diabolical madmen, but this sounds far more bizarre than anything that he’s done in a very long time.

Iñárritu Has Described The Movie As A 'Brutal, Wild Comedy of Catastrophic Proportions'

Though Iñárritu and Cruise have both created some undeniably comedic moments throughout their respective careers, neither is really known for comedy. That said, we will get to see how the two handle dark comedy when Digger opens next fall. During a 25th anniversary celebration of Iñárritu’s 2000 drama, Amores Perros, at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival (via The Hollywood Reporter), the man behind Birdman and The Revenant had this to say when teasing the movie:

During the same event, Deadline asked Iñárritu about working with Cruise and how that experience went. In his answer, the director offered some more details about the movie:

I didn't think we'd be getting a Les Grossman-type performance out of Cruise here, but it actually looks like we will be, and I'm all in on that. It's so great when Cruise steps out of the action hero cape he's so often in, so this could be something special.

John Goodman sadly sustained a hip injury while working on Alejandro González Iñárritu and Tom Cruise’s new film in the UK. Now, as the actor heals, production on the movie has been put on pause. However, both the actor and the project will be back up and running soon.

It was revealed on Saturday, March 8, that Goodman had hurt his hip while filming this movie that co-stars the Mission: Impossible star. A spokesperson from Warner Bros. released a statement to Variety about how this will impact production, explaining:

Overall, it sounds like this won't impact production that much. It seems like Goodman is well on his way to recovery, and filming will resume next week, which is great news.

At the moment, we have minimal details about this film, and a lot is being kept under wraps, including the title. However, here’s what we do know: It is Iñárritu’s first English-language film since The Revenant - for which Leonardo DiCaprio won his Oscar- and alongside Goodman and Cruise, it will star Jesse Plemons, Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed, Michael Stuhlbarg and Sophie Wilde. It will also be released on October 2, 2026.

That alone makes it a must-watch.

However, just wait until you hear the brief synopsis from Warner Bros. (via IndieWire). This film will follow “the most powerful man in the world” as he goes on a “frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything.” So, it sounds like it will be action-packed…

Thankfully, Goodman is on the mend, and it sounds like he'll be back in action alongside Tom Cruise soon.

Personally, I can’t wait for this movie, because it marks exciting moments in both men’s careers.

For the last few years, John Goodman has been spending a lot of time on the small screen, with roles in The Righteous Gemstones, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Monsters at Work, and The Conners – which was one on the list of shows that ended in 2024. So I’m thrilled that he’s shaking it up and going to be back on the big screen next.

Meanwhile, in the last decade, Tom Cruise has made eight films, and four of them have been Mission: Impossible movies – and that’s counting his entry on the 2025 movie schedule, as Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning will be released on May 23. So, I’m very excited to see him play someone other than Ethan Hunt. Don’t get me wrong, I love the M:I flicks, but, I can’t wait to see this action star play a totally new character.

To top all this off, I have a feeling the film will be very different from the projects both men have worked on recently. Iñárritu’s last three feature films were 2014’s Birdman, 2016’s The Revenant and 2022’s Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths. So, you know we can expect something enticitng, striking and unique from this untitled flick that will star Cruise and Goodman.

Overall, the hype surrounding this project is real, and I’m happy John Goodman’s injury shouldn’t impact the actor or the production too much.

As we learn more about his injury and this film in general, we'll keep you posted.

To most of the world at large, Tom Cruise is primarily known as an action star, and I can totally see why. The Mission: Impossible film series alone has ingrained the image of the Dead Reckoning actor risking life and limb to top himself each time he steps in front of a camera. 

However, with Cruise’s post-Mission: Impossible 8 movie seeing the actor teaming up with auteur director Alejandro González Iñárritu, it looks like it’s once again time to reintroduce the world to another side of the famed actor’s chops. Which, as a fan of Michael Mann’s Collateral, has me obsessed with this potential career shift. 

Tom Cruise’s Potential Return To Auteur Movies

As mentioned above, there’s a mysterious project forming that’s brought the director of The Revenant and Birdman together with the star of Top Gun: Maverick. Under his new deal to make films with Warner Bros., Tom Cruise’s first effort has no plot points released to the public. All we know is that he and Alejandro González Iñárritu are looking to work together on this clandestine cinematic effort. 

On one hand, I know I probably shouldn’t get too excited; which is why I said “potential” return in this section’s header. I too remember that time it looked like Tom Cruise was going to be cast in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, only for that to never pan out. Even on the blockbuster side of things, I’m still hoping that movie intending to send Tom Cruise to space is still in the works, and we’ve here very little on that front. 

So what’s really got me excited about a Cruise/Iñárritu collaboration? Once again, I direct your attention to the Michael Mann directed/Jamie Foxx co-starring wonder that is 2004’s Collateral. 

Why Collateral Is A Prime Example Of Tom Cruise’s Auteur Era

I know some people are probably wondering why I haven’t gone with a movie like Magnolia or Eyes Wide Shut when it comes to Tom Cruise’s “auteur” era. Frankly, the reason is because that’s the Cruise film I’m most familiar with that also fits into that mold. Michael Mann really tapped into something with his casting of Tom as taxi passenger/assassin Vincent, and that in turn left a huge impression on me, a young Mission: Impossible fan, when I first saw it in theaters. 

There’s plenty of action for Tom Cruise to get into as he chases targets throughout nocturnal L.A. However, what’s truly impressive in Collateral is how reserved Tom is with depicting a cold blooded killer. He’s done it plenty of times before, especially when you consider his part as Lestat in Interview with the Vampire. But instead of tossing out delicious one-liners and full tilt villainy, Cruise filled that spot with cold, calculated cunning. 

To this day, Collateral is one of the best non-action Tom Cruise movies around, and this new film with Alejandro González Iñárritu just might be setting up shop in that same ballpark. Which is perfect, as another Cruise blockbuster seemed to have already primed him for this sort of return to a different form.

Top Gun: Maverick Is Another Good Reminder Of Tom Cruise’s Acting Range

If you need a more recent reminder of what Tom Cruise can do when breaking out of his comfort zone, I have you covered. You might not think it on face value, but I’d recommend revisiting director Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick to reinforce your understanding of Tom and his acting range. In fact, it’s one of the reasons Maverick makes the original Top Gun even better. 

Gone is the completely cocky Captain Pete Mitchell, and in his place is a man who still has charm and confidence to spare, but is more world weary. Top Gun 2 mined both action and emotion well enough that I actually found myself shedding tears while watching it. 

Watching a more hesitant Cruise acting as a mentor to the next generation of hot shot aviators was a real treat. Moments like Maverick's emotional response to Iceman's funeral only heightened the presence of a purely adrenaline-fueled third act, proving that even the more blockbuster-friendly projects of the Cruise oeuvre can dig deeper when allowed.  

Those Action Blockbuster Days Are Numbered For Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise can obviously still hang with the stunt professionals of our modern age, and his Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning stunts are the latest case that proves it. Unfortunately, the seventh Ethan Hunt-led caper also seems to suggest another notion, and for two different reasons. That notion is that Tom Cruise’s action blockbuster days are numbered. 

On the financial side, Mission: Impossible 7’s seemingly middling performance at the 2023 box office could suggest that it’s finally time for Ethan to hang it up. That was already the rumored plan for Mission: Impossible 7 and 8, so this wouldn’t be much of a surprise. However, while the 61 year old star of the Top Gun franchise is still in pretty awesome shape, recovering from incidents like a broken ankle is going to only get longer. After over 30 years of missions, Tom Cruise has earned a break that doesn't involve a major bodily system. 

Tom Cruise Could Return To Other Non-Action Genre Fair As A Result

Seeing Alejandro González Iñárritu potentially break Tom Cruise out of his blockbuster streak is exciting for many reasons. The final one I’m about to share is something that not only could set him up for more auteur movies, but really anything that’s not an action stunt spectacular. 

Should Cruise make this secretive film of seemingly non-action origins, it could give him a taste to branch back into other genres again. Think about it!  Could Tom Cruise’s fixation with Les Grossman finally yield a Tropic Thunder spinoff? Or even better, what if an enterprising director asked him to reprise Lestat in another Anne Rice adaptation, or a role similar to that ilk? 

Tom Cruise could be opening the door to return to old haunts or even kick the tires on any remaining new frontiers he’s yet to conquer. That's all because he’s set to take a chance and dive into the deep end of the acting challenges he’s previously bested in the past. If this new project is close to any of the options mentioned above, the public would go as wild as I am at the moment.

I don’t care how many more Mission: Impossible movies Tom Cruise makes, I’ll still show up whenever he and his IMF team break into a theater near me. But now that he’s showing renewed interest in racking up some unconventional hits again, I’m going to be quite fixated on a potential renaissance for weird, deadly and absolutely hysterical Cruise movies to return. 

If he needs a project that’ll help warm him up for the crossing beyond the realm of action, then maybe Tom Cruise needs to get Edge of Tomorrow 2 back on the board. It's just a thought, really. In the meantime, what do Top Gun: Maverick, Collateral and Tropic Thunder have in common, besides the obvious? All of those titles are, at the time of publication, streaming for the masses through access to a Paramount+ subscription. 

When the eighth Mission: Impossible movie hits theaters next May, it will end a five-year journey Tom Cruise alongside the cast and filmmakers of the franchise's closely-tied seventh and eighth installments continuing Ethan Hunt’s action-packed espionage journey. What’s next for Cruise after that? Reportedly, he’ll be in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s next movie! 

Alejandro González Iñárritu is the award-winning filmmaker behind 2015’s The Revenant, which finally gave Leonardo DiCaprio his Oscar. His other English-language work includes 2016’s Birdman and 2006’s Babel. According to Deadline, the director is currently in negotiations with Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures to get his upcoming movie off the ground, and Tom Cruise will be the star. 

The movie’s title or synopsis was not revealed, but it reportedly comes from an original idea by Iñárritu which he co-wrote a script for alongside Sabina Berman, Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolas Giacobone (the latter two being his writing collaborators on Birdman). It’s also being reported that Cruise will produce the movie following his meeting with Iñárritu, who apparently met with a “select few actors” for the mysterious leading role. 

Alejandro González Iñárritu isn’t exactly an action director, as the filmmaker has tackled some rather intense topics in his past films. This includes The Revenant having Leo DiCaprio coming face-to-face with harsh environmental circumstances of wintertime in 1820s America (like being attacked by a bear), and the ambitious production of Birdman sought to make the audience feel like they are watching a movie without a single unbroken shot. 

What’s particularly exciting about Tom Cruise’s next role is that it could potentially sway him into the world of arthouse dramas and even in the Oscars conversation, should the movie hit the way Iñárritu’s other films have with the Academy. Iñárritu is one of a handful of directors who made a great movie on his first try, with 2000’s Amores Perros, and has frequently been recognized for his movies (English-language or otherwise) since.  

Tom Cruise has been on an action movie kick for sometime, but there was a time when he was often part of the year’s most critically-acclaimed list. He was previously nominated in the Best Actor race three times, for 1990’s Born on the Fourth of July, 1997’s Jerry Maguire and 2000’s Magnolia, but he has never taken home an Oscar. Cruise also earned a Best Picture Oscar nomination for Top Gun: Maverick a couple years ago, but didn’t win that award either. 

While we wait to hear more information about Tom Cruise’s next movie, it’s worth noting that Mission: Impossible 8’s Hannah Waddingham recently teased working with the actor on the action flick by calling him a “daredevil” in his upcoming movie's scenes. On the flip side, The Hunger Games’ prequel actress Rachel Zegler beat out the actor for Action Star of the Year at the People’s Choice Awards. Mission: Impossible 8 hits theaters on May 23, 2025. 

If you’re into movies like I am, then you’ve undoubtedly seen a ton of excellent films by great directors like Quentin Tarantino, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, etc. Not only do I love to watch films from all over the world, I also love to watch a director’s entire oeuvre, which is how I’ve seen all 6 George Lucas movies, and every Peter Jackson movie. Here’s what I’ve learned by watching the entire filmography of so many directors: Some of them make a truly great movie on their very first try. 

Now, that’s not to say that they didn’t experiment with smaller projects before their first feature length film, as even Paul Thomas Anderson cut his teeth on the short film Cigarettes and Coffee before he directed Hard Eight. But, when it comes to a first feature length film, some directors just somehow nail it, which often guides the trajectory of their entire careers. So, here are 16 such directors who undoubtedly got it right on their very first feature length film.  

Quentin Tarantino - Reservoir Dogs (1992) 

Here’s what’s interesting about Reservoir Dogs. If Tarantino’s first movie was Pulp Fiction, and Reservoir Dogs was actually his last movie, it might feel smaller in scale, sure, but I also think it would still feel like a fitting swansong to an incredible career. That’s how amazing Reservoir Dogs is. It’s so good, I could see him making it today. 

But, it was his first film, and it totally made him explode onto the scene back in the early ‘90s. He would, of course, go on to make Pulp Fiction (his best movie), Inglorious Basterds, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and many others, but Tarantino’s mark was already made with Reservoir Dogs, and it’s still legendary today.     

Robert Rodriguez - El Mariachi (1992) 

The first (and I would argue best) in Rodriguez’s Mexico Trilogy, which also contains Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, is said to have only cost $7,000 U.S. dollars to make. It’s about a guitar player who manages to get targeted because of mistaken identity, and he has to take up arms if he wants to live. 

Robert Rodriguez has had an interesting career, jumping back and forth between mature, R-rated films like Sin City and Machete, and kid-friendly stuff like Spy Kids and the hit We Can Be Heroes. That said, it was El Mariachi and its unassuming badassness that got him onto the scene, and it’s still awesome to this day. He’s still awesome to this day, no question.  

Kevin Smith - Clerks (1994) 

There's a reason why Kevin Smith keeps coming back to Clerks, what with the upcoming Clerks 3, and that's because his first movie might just be his very best film ever. The story of a clerk named Dante who shouldn't even be at work today, seems like it has nothing to say and yet everything to say at the same time. Plus, it's all in glorious black and white. 

Kevin Smith's known for movies like Mallrats, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Red State, and those movies are great and all, but I think most would agree that Smith found his voice with his very first film, and he's mostly kept that voice for the entirety of his career. I'm not complaining.   

Patty Jenkins - Monster (2003) 

Nowadays, Patty Jenkins is most known for bringing Wonder Woman to the big screen, and her future resides in Star Wars with her upcoming movie, Rogue Squadron. But, arguably more interesting is Patty Jenkins' first movie, Monster, which is about the real life serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, played by Charlize Theron, who won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance.  

How good was this movie? Well, Roger Ebert called Monster the best film of 2002, and he proclaimed that Charlize Theron's performance was one of the greatest that he’d ever seen. Not bad for a director's debut picture.  

Jordan Peele - Get Out (2017) 

Before Get Out, Jordan Peele was probably most known as the other half of Key & Peele. But, after Get Out, I’m pretty sure everybody knew who he was as a single entity, as the talented director/writer/actor exploded onto the scene with the movie that many consider the true Best Picture of 2017.  

Now, every new movie he makes is an event. Us was a creepy doppelganger film, and his next project, Nope, is shrouded in mystery, but still highly anticipated. All that white hot anticipation is all due to Get Out, which single-handedly turned this comedian into one of the most important voices in horror today.    

Steven Spielberg - Duel (1971) 

Steven Spielberg was only 24 when he directed his first feature length film, Duel, and the rest is history. Duel has a simple premise - a guy (Dennis Weaver) is terrorized by an unseen truck driver for 80 minutes, and that’s it.  

But, Spielberg, who has made some of the best movies of all time, just nailed it with Duel. The whole film is taut and unsettling, and it’s little wonder why many people pegged Spielberg as a wunderkind all the way back in the early ‘70s. He certainly was!   

Orson Welles - Citizen Kane (1941) 

The year is 2022, and some people are still saying that Orson Welles got robbed when Citizen Kane lost Best Picture to How Green Was My Valley back at the 1942 Oscars. This actually makes sense, because some critics call Citizen Kane the greatest movie of all time. Not bad for a young man's very first feature film. 

In fact, even though Welles directed other great films like The Magnificent Ambersons, and Touch of Evil, he will forever be known as the man who directed quite possibly the greatest film of all time. On his very first try, no less. Unbelievable.  

Sidney Lumet - 12 Angry Men (1957) 

Even though Sidney Lumet directed a little over 40 films, and serious classics including Network, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Verdict, it might be his first movie, the Academy Award-nominated 12 Angry Men, that might be his most accessible and enjoyable work in his filmography. 

Adapted from a teleplay of the same name, 12 Angry Men is spectacular for many reasons, one being the acting, but two being the pacing, which never lets up. In fact, quick pacing and stellar acting is emblematic of a lot of Lumet's movies, and he had it down pat with his very first film. Lumet was a legend.  

Sophia Coppola - The Virgin Suicides (1999) 

Based on the novel of the same name, The Virgin Suicides is about five sisters (one played by Kirsten Dunst) who are closely monitored after the youngest sister attempts suicide. It’s a drama, to be certain, but there is also an undercurrent of dark humor that kind of creates an almost unsettling quality to an already pretty dark story. 

This “unsettling quality” would show up in Coppola’s later films, like Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, and especially, The Beguiled. Still, if I were to jumble up all of those movies and throw The Virgin Suicides into the mix, then most people likely wouldn’t be able to tell which is her debut picture, since they’re all the marks of a professional.  

Ridley Scott - The Duelists (1977) 

Ridley Scott is probably most known for movies like Alien, Blade Runner, and the Best Picture-winning Gladiator, but his debut, The Duelists, starring Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine as warring soldiers who duel each other for decades, was already the mark of master director. 

It’s so good that one of his most recent films, The Last Duel, kind of feels similar in tone and direction. The budget is much higher for The Last Duel, but the acting, pacing, and direction in The Duelists is just as good as it is in the recent film, which is astounding to say the very least.  

Alejandro González Iñárritu - Amores Perros (2000)

The first part of the “Trilogy of Death” (with 21 Grams and Babel), Amores Perros, which roughly translates to "love’s a bitch," slammed into audiences like a car crash with this interesting narrative that connects three separate people to an automobile accident. 

Alejandro González Iñárritu would later go on to direct one of my favorite movies ever in Birdman, but a lot of the electric filmmaking that made that movie so great, was even evident in Amores Perros, which shocks and breaks your heart, sometimes in the very same scene. 

Sam Raimi - The Evil Dead (1981) 

Sam Raimi's come a long way since his debut picture, The Evil Dead. He's helming Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and he came to commercial recognition with his Spider-Man trilogy.   

But, to many, he'll always be "The Evil Dead guy," and for good reason. The first Evil Dead is a seminal entry in ‘80s horror that innovated a lot of unique techniques, such as the camera chasing the characters. Sure, his later Evil Dead movies might be more popular, but that first movie announced a fresh new director, and he'd be here to stay.   

Spike Jonze - Being John Malkovich (1999) 

If you love meta movies, then you’re undoubtedly familiar with the work of Spike Jonze. His second film, Adaptation., was perhaps even more meta than his first, and he managed to make the children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are, into a semi-meditative movie featuring James Gandolfini.   

Being John Malkovich garnered him a Best Director Oscar nomination. The film has such a unique strangeness to it that you might attribute it to Charlie Kaufman’s cerebral writing, but, you can see that Spike Jonze’s brain is definitely on a similar wavelength with his other films not written by Kaufman. Being John Malkovich is one of the reasons why some people call 1999 one of the best years in cinema, and this was Spike Jonze’s debut picture. Outstanding!    

Ryan Coogler - Fruitvale Station (2013)  

Before Black Panther, before Creed, there was Fruitvale Station, a film so infuriating that it had this writer seething in his seat when he first saw it. Chronicling the events that led up to the real life death of Oscar Grant, Fruitvale Station seems like the work of an artist who had spent years in the director’s seat, not a directorial debut.  

Coogler's next picture is the hotly anticipated sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but you could see the talent in his first picture, which he made at the tender age of 25. Damn.  

Ari Aster - Hereditary (2018) 

I think it says a lot that Ari Aster only has two feature films to his name, but he's already established himself as one of the leading voices in modern day horror. This was all due to Hereditary, which is still the scariest movie I've ever seen. 

He would later go on to make Midsommar, and one could argue that Midsommar is the better Ari Aster film. Whichever you prefer, I don't think anybody will argue the greatness of Hereditary. Making one of the scariest movies of all time as your very first feature film is no laughing matter. In fact, it’s quite terrifying to be this good.    

Rob Reiner - This Is Spinal Tap (1984) 

Rob Reiner has proven that he can be successful in any genre. He mastered fantasy with The Princess Bride, tackled horror with Misery, and dabbled in romantic comedies with When Harry Met Sally.

But, my favorite, and a lot of people's favorite movie of his, is his debut, the infinitely quotable mockumentary, This is Spinal Tap. The film is probably the funniest rock movie ever made, and it's done in such a way that Spinal Tap seems like a legit band. It's actually kind of sad that they aren't a real band, though, because some of their songs really kick ass.   

What other prominent directors do you think made a great movie on their first try? For news on today's great directors, make sure to swing by here often!   

After winning the Best Director gong at the Oscars two years on the trot Alejandro G. Inarritu could turn his prestigious talents towards any project that he wanted. While you might have expected the Mexican director to immediately try and eclipse Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) and _The Revenant _with his next outing, Alejandro G. Inarritu has instead gone in the complete opposite direction as he's going to release a short film. As you'd expect from Inarritu, that's only half the story, though, as it's going to be an experimental short virtual reality film.

A press release from Legendary Entertainment revealed that Alejandro G. Inarritu has been working on this tantalizing project for four years. Now after 48 months of development, Legendary and Fondazione Prada have finally provided the filmmaker with the green light to shoot the film.

Alejandro G. Inarritu will also work alongside his frequent collaborator, Emmanuel Lubezki, on the project. Since Emmanuel Lubezki has three of his own Academy Awards, which he also claimed in consecutive years for Gravity, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) and The Revenant, becoming the first cinematographer to do so, the short film will immediately pique the interest of cinephiles.

Alejandro G. Inarritu has established himself as one of the most beguiling filmmakers in American cinema over the last decade and a half, dating all the way back to 2000's Amores Perros. He's since followed this up with 21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful and, of course, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance), and The Revenant.

While each of Inarritu's films have been greeted with widespread critical acclaim, it was the back-to-back triumphs of Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) and The Revenant, which also grossed $103.2 million and $533 million, respectively, that have secured his place in cinematic history. That's because he became just the third director to win consecutive Academy Awards, something that had previously only been achieved by John Ford for 1940's The Grapes Of Wrath and 1941's How Green Was My Valley and Joseph L. Mankiewicz for 1949's A Letter To Three Wives and 1950's All About Eve.

While it's likely that Inarritu's upcoming short film will merely be a minor footnote to his career, by the sound of things, it could help to expand and evolve the way that we watch films. Still, considering the experimental approach of Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) and the fact that Inarritu was the director that finally led Leonardo DiCaprio to the Best Actor Academy Award, it's no longer surprising that the Mexican director is yet again on the verge of creating such a cutting edge effort.

Honestly, it couldn’t have gone to anyone else. This year the Academy Award for Best Director went to Mexican director Alejandro Iñárritu for his exemplary work on The Revenant. It was a crowded field and anyone could have won, but at the end of the day the award once again went to Iñárritu. As incredibly easy as it would be to say that we didn’t see this coming, that simply would not be the case.

We really cannot say that we are surprised to hear that Alejandro Iñárritu won this year’s Oscar for Best Director. The Revenant strikes an absolutely perfect balance between technical complexity and beautiful simplicity. We can heap as much praise as we want upon the performances of men like Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, but at the end of the day the most pivotal factor in the creation of a movie as raw and brutal as The Revenant is Alejandro Iñárritu. He’s the man who guides those who create the beautiful cinematography, and he’s the man who directs the perfectly acted scenes.

Honestly, just look at this brief moment from The Revenant to get the smallest understanding as to why Alejandro Iñárritu completely deserves the award for his historical epic this year:

Alejandro Iñárritu’s win makes an unreasonable amount of sense. While The Revenant tells an incredibly simple story, it does so in in equally incredibly complex manner. The job falls on Iñárritu to ensure that actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy deliver believable yet nuanced performances while still maintaining the integrity of a true story. In the beautiful creation of The Revenant, Iñárritu utilized numerous techniques from his previous Oscar win Birdman that became his trademark style. However, unlike Birdman, the techniques he used took place not in a small, contained studio, but outside in a world that notoriously fought back against the production of this film.

Photo Credit: ABC/Adam Taylor

I’ve said it before: the fact that a movie was difficult to make doesn’t make it worthy of an Oscar, but a director’s ability to hold everything together and create a work of art as wholly beautiful as The Revenant most certainly is deserving of Oscar recognition.

Of course, that’s the beautiful thing about the world of film: it really isn’t a black and white affair. Who do you think deserved to win this year’s Best Direct Oscar? Let us know what you think in the comments and keep the conversation going!

Seldom has a film ever felt so simultaneously repellant and magnetic. Alejandro Iñárritu’s The Revenant represents the evolution of a filmmaking style, and the use of that style to show how real life fur trapper Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) defied the elements and the odds on a quest for revenge in the American frontier. It’s a film the cast and crew went through hell to make, and that hell ultimately finds itself perfectly translated into every beautiful frame. Ultimately all of the hard work paid off, as Iñárritu’s revenge piece featured some of the most expert visual storytelling of any film produced in the last year, and he wholly deserves to bring home 2016’s Best Picture Oscar for those efforts.

Within the lengthy runtime of the historical epic, we can see numerous trademark stylistic choices that brought him home the Oscar gold at last year’s Academy Awards for his work on Birdman. Both Birdman and The Revenant combine long takes, beautiful cinematography, surrealist imagery to provide the audience insight into the conflict of a bitter, damaged protagonist.

However, The Revenant expands upon these tried-and-true techniques by taking them out of a safe environment and crafting a narrative in a wholly natural setting. From the opening Native American attack, to the grizzly (in both senses of the word) bear attack, the blending between naturalism and technology in the filmmaking process becomes almost seamless. Alejandro Iñárritu uses this cinema blend (boom) to craft beautifully terrifying sequences that strike a perfect balance between chaos, coherence, sadness and inspiration. There’s a sense that the world of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Hugh Glass is hellishly terrifying yet completely lived-in and realized.

Some people have leveled accusations that The Revenant has too basic of a story to deserve the Best Picture win, which ultimately seems like a gross oversimplification of the film. What The Revenant lacks in overall narrative complexity, it makes up for with its endlessly rich thematic elements. It tells a dark, gritty tale of revenge and perseverance against insurmountable odds almost completely nonverbally; it’s emphasis on storytelling through imagery rather than dialogue gets to the very root of film as a visual medium. Bare in mind that Leonardo DiCaprio's character spends much of the film alone in the wilderness; the responsibility falls upon himself and Iñárritu to convey the physical, mental, and emotional state of Glass as he treks through the wilderness, and they never miss a beat.

Additionally, I have to take some degree of umbrage with those who call The Revenant a simple film without leveling the same accusations against other Best Picture nominees. Neither Mad Max: Fury Road nor The Martian burden themselves with ideas like narrative complexity; they tell similarly straightforward, barebones stories. Few people have come after them with the same degree of malice that they direct towards Alejandro Iñárritu’a masterpiece, and it's difficult to discern why.

Does The Revenant deserve to win the Oscar just because it was a difficult film to make? Absolutely not. However, the movie is so well produced, and so emotionally cognizant of itself that the adversity faced by the Alejandro Iñárritu, Leonardo DiCaprio, and everyone else involved only makes the film’s very existence that much more impressive.

The Revenant ultimately works as well as it does not because of any one quality, but because so many different aspects of it coalesced – against all odds – to create a truly breathtaking piece of cinema. Between its haunting score, its realistic performance, and its rich visuals, the film tells one of the most deeply affecting stories of the past year.

It won last weekend at the box office, but Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s The Revenant is a brutal, punishing movie to watch. The action follows man who is mauled by a giant grizzly bear and is ultimately left for dead. This happens early in the movie, and is an impressive feat, but according to one stuntman involved in the process, bringing this moment to life was a total nightmare.

The bear attack is a grueling, visceral moment that feels grounded and real. But it wasn’t, the bear was actually a stuntman named Glenn Ennis. To accomplish this feat, he wore a big blue costume and walked, talked, and generally acted like a bear in the woods. And apparently it sucked. Talking to Global News, he said:

If you’ve seen The Revenant, or really any of Inarritu’s other movies, you know that that he’s fond of long, elaborate takes where there’s lots of camera movement and intricate staging and choreography. The epic bear attack is no different, and you have to imagine that with the director’s eye for detail and precision, this was a scene that required a great many takes. With the physicality required of Ennis, it’s easy to imagine how quickly doing this repeatedly would take a toll on your body. And this is a guy who was entirely engulfed in flames for a scene in Jason Vs. Freddy, among other things, so you know it must have been rough going. (I can’t help but be curious about his take on the "bear rape" rumors.)

This is another in a long line of anecdotes about how difficult it was to shoot The Revenant. They filmed outdoors in the frozen wilderness of Canada, and later Argentina, recreating the brutal wintery conditions, and a number of behind the scenes personnel left the production over safety concerns. Star Leonardo DiCaprio, who many believe is the frontrunner for the Best Actor Oscar this year, did all kinds of crazy stuff, like swimming through frozen rivers and eating raw bison liver. Shit got pretty real.

After all is said and done, one thing is clear, The Revenant was one hell of a harrowing production on just about every level. It’s in theaters now, and we’ll see if these extremes paid off in February as it is nominated for a number of Academy Awards.

Having the opportunity to star in a feature film is a great one, and that’s especially true if that film is being directed by Oscar winner Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and features Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy as the leads. It was this exact situation that young actor Forrest Goodluck found himself in after being cast as Hugh Glass’ son, Hawk, in The Revenant -, though he didn’t exactly leave the best impression after his first ever take during production. In fact, he fell flat on his face… quite literally.

The first sequence that Forrest Goodluck shot during his time on The Revenant was the epic camp invasion that finds his character joining his father fleeing an attacking Arikara tribe. His debut on-screen appearance was designed with him running across the screen, though this didn’t work exactly as planned from the get go. Instead, he found himself having serious trouble with the sloppy environment in which he was running. As the actor explained to me during an interview last month,

You can watch Forrest Goodluck talk about his fun embarrassing moment in the video below:

This surely must have been blush-inducing for Forrest Goodluck when he was actually on set filming The Revenant, but in retrospect it’s probably a good thing that he found himself face down in the mud. After all, there are surely thousands if not millions of actors out there whose very first take in a feature film wasn’t actually all that memorable. Goodluck now has a story to tell for his entire acting career.

So when you go see The Revenant - which is in theaters everywhere now - and watch Forrest Goodluck running past the screen during the invasion sequence, you’ll know in the back of your mind that things didn’t exactly go precisely as planned the first time around.

The Golden Globes represent an opportunity to see some of the best films of the previous year get rewarded, as well as watch celebrities drink heavily and give speeches – but it also serves another purpose. As one of the major award shows, the results tend to be deeply analyzed and ultimately have an effect/predict what will happen when the Academy Awards roll around. And guess what? This year is no different.

Looking at the list of nominees and victors at this year’s Golden Globes ceremony, and weighing them against their buzz going into the show, we’ve determined the five biggest winners and losers from this year’s affair. What movies and filmmakers were put on a good path, and which are in trouble? Read on to find out.

Winner: The Martian

One could argue that Ridley Scott’s The Martian was given a bit of an advantage this evening by being categorized as a "Comedy/Musical" (which it isn’t), but the folks behind the movie certainly must feel good about their big wins tonight. Matt Damon got some much deserved love for his turn as biologist Mark Watney in the sci-fi thriller, and it’s hard not to be happy about it having a Best Picture trophy (even if the genre is a bit off). We’ll see how it winds up changing things as we get closer to the Oscars.

Loser: Mad Max: Fury Road

This one really breaks my heart. George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road was one of the most critically-beloved movies of 2015, but its status as a big action blockbuster has positioned it with a handicap during this year’s awards race. And while fans want to see the movie heavily rewarded by the likes of the HFPA and the Academy, tonight that definitely didn’t happen. Though it was only nominated for Best Director and Best Picture, Drama, it still hurts that the film didn’t get the recognition is most definitely deserves.

Winner: Leonardo DiCaprio

The internet at large seems absolutely determined to see Leonardo DiCaprio win an Oscar, and after tonight the actor must surely have a good deal of confidence about doing so in a few weeks’ time. DiCaprio went head to head with the likes of Bryan Cranston, Michael Fassbender, Eddie Redmayne and Will Smith, but emerged on-top. Clearly his hard-earned performance impressed the members of the HFPA, and there’s a chance it influenced a lot of The Revenant’s other big wins tonight. Could this be Leo’s year? He’s hoping for it, and things are certainly looking good.

Loser: Spotlight

This was a bad one. Thomas McCarthy’s Spotlight closed out 2015 as one of the clear front-runners in many categories during the awards race, but the folks behind the film left the Golden Globes ceremony empty handed. The movie was nominated in three key categories - Best Picture, Drama; Best Director; and Best Screenplay - but it was beaten by The Revenant in the first two and by Steve Jobs in the third. The quality of Spotlight will keep it a strong contender in the rest of the awards race, but this was a hard loss for the film.

Winner: Brie Larson

Brie Larson was sadly looked over last year for her emotionally-shredding performance in the indie drama Short Term 12, but this year the Golden Globes made it up to her and more… rewarding yet another emotionally-shredding performance in Room. The talented performer had some very stiff competition in the Best Actress, Drama category – including three-time winner Cate Blanchett – but it was Larson who was ultimately able to walk away with the well-deserved trophy. This is a great sign for her as we get closer to the Oscars.

Loser: Will Smith

As Ricky Gervais gleefully pointed out during his opening monologue, the Hollywood Foreign Press really loves celebrities. Sometimes this steers them in strange directions when it comes to not only certain nominations, but also winners. As such, Will Smith had an interesting edge going into the Golden Globes, but it was not to be, as he lost Best Actor, Drama to Leonardo DiCaprio. If Smith was going to get a surprise win for his Concussion performance, this is where it would have happened… but it didn’t.

Winner: Sylvester Stallone

Back in 1977, Sylvester Stallone got some pretty heft Oscar attention for his performance and script work on Rocky, and while he didn’t walk away with any trophies, it seems things are coming full circle thanks to Creed. The notoriously mumbling actor faced some stiff competition in the Best Supporting Actor category this year – facing off against the likes of Mark Rylance, Idris Elba, Paul Dano and Michael Shannon – but the HFPA saw it fit to give Stallone the prize. The Academy may come to a different decision, but that doesn’t make the win any less significant.

Loser: Jennifer Jason-Leigh

Quentin Tarantino is known for many things on the big screen – from his regular use of trunk shots to close-ups of women’s feet – but he is perhaps best known as having the magic touch for actors. He famously turned John Travolta’s career around with Pulp Fiction, and has since worked wonders for Christoph Waltz, Pam Grier, Michael Fassbender, and more. Sadly, this magic touch didn’t quite work for Jennifer Jason-Leigh tonight, as she lost Best Supporting Actress to Kate Winslet. The Oscars could wind up writing another story, but this is a notable miss in the awards race.

Winner: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu really put himself through hell making The Revenant, to the point where he has said that he has no plans to ever make a movie like it ever again. The good news is that his effort is definitely being rewarded, specifically tonight in the form of a Golden Globe for Best Director. While the filmmaker won the Academy Award in the same category last year for Birdman, he actually lost to Richard Linklater at the Golden Globes. So not only is this a victory earned through great effort, but also a nice revenge win.

Loser: Todd Haynes

One could make the argument that Carol is the most softly beautiful film of 2015, and one can expect that the movie will do quite well in the technical categories when the Academy Awards roll around. But tonight Todd Haynes’ gorgeous vision went head-to-head with Inarritu’s harsh portrayal of Mother Nature and lost. It’s not great in general that the movie walked away from the Golden Globes with no wins from its five nominations, but Haynes’ loss I sadly the biggest blow to the feature’s campaign.

By now, many of us have seen Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s latest powerhouse film, The Revenant, and we can safely say we’ve never felt dirtier. It’s a dire and unrelenting, yet profoundly beautiful movie about fur trapper Hugh Glass’ desperate fight for survival and revenge in the American frontier. Despite the disgusting and brutal nature of the film, people seem to have genuinely gravitated towards it. In its expansion to wide release, The Revenant has already made an estimated $38 million at the box office, making it Leonardo DiCaprio’s fourth biggest opening ever, and Inarritu’s all-time best frame.

As unlikely as it may seem, The Revenant is in fact based upon a real story. Many of the treacherous events that befall Glass throughout the film actually took place, but as we all know, Hollywood does love to play fast and loose with the phrase "based on a true story." Given the vague, and possibly embellished accounts of what happened to Glass out in the wilderness, how much of The Revenant is fact, and how much of it is fiction? Join us as we sift through the details to find the truth, and determine whether, or not the truth even matters.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for The Revenant. If you have not yet seen the movie, we recommend clicking away to another one of our fantastic articles.

What Happened In The Movie

Set against the harsh backdrop of the American frontier during the early 19th century, The Revenant follows expert tracker Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) as he and his Native American son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck) guide a fur trapping expedition led by Captain Andrew Henry (Domnhnall Gleeson). After witnessing the majority of their expedition violently murdered at the hands of a Native American tribe, Glass finds himself brutally mauled by a bear while scouting in the woods. Unwilling to care for Glass’ situation or his survival, party member John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) murders Hawk in front of Glass and leaves the tracker for dead in the wilderness – lying about Glass’ fate when he returns to their home at Fort Kiowa and forcing fellow party member Jim Bridger (Will Poulter) to corroborate his story.

Unbeknownst to Fitzgerald and Bridger, Glass survives their attempt to bury him alive and begins a rage-fueled journey for revenge that sees him brave hunger, Native attacks, and various other treacherous elements to get the man who murdered his son. Throughout Glass’ journey, he experiences haunting flashbacks of his dead Pawnee wife that remind him to keep fighting as long as he can breathe. After being subjected to just about every type of hell imaginable, Glass finally makes it back to the trapping outpost, at which point the truth begins to come out, causing Fitzgerald to flee with Henry’s money. Glass forgives Bridger, and eventually tracks Fitzgerald down in the wilderness where the two men engage in a vicious brawl - shooting, slashing, and beating each other to within an inch of their lives. Gaining the upper hand, Glass opts not to kill Fitzgerald, but sends him downriver into the hands of a hateful Native tribe from which they spent the film running. The final moments of The Revenant see Glass still barely breathing among the trees, as he watches the specter of his dead love wander away into the wilderness. The credits roll, and all the audience is left with is the sound of Glass’ breath. Riveting stuff for sure, but let’s see how it compares with reality…

What History Tells Us

Going by the significant research of the website HughGlass.Org, The Revenant actually gets a surprising amount of Hugh Glass’ story correct when we consider just how amazing it is. According to trapper’s journals and Native American stories passed down for generations, the real Hugh Glass did in fact suffer major injuries at the hands of a grizzly bear, and was indeed left for dead by John Fitzgerald. However, Glass’ real journey for revenge stemmed more from the simple fact that he was left for dead, and his fellow trapper stole his prized rifle from him. This is because the real Glass did not have a Pawnee son whom Fitzgerald murdered. The film also condenses Glass’ trek for the sake of brevity, and in reality the trapper and frontiersmen didn’t actually catch up with his treacherous companion until months later – discovering that he had enlisted himself in the army. As a result of Fitzgerald’s status as a government employee, Glass was forbidden from exacting any sort of violent justice against his enemy. Instead, his prized rifle was returned to him, and officials who learned about his ordeal compensated him roughly $300.

Following the events portrayed in The Revenant, the real Hugh Glass went on to live a full life by continuing his work as a fur trapper. He moved around from territory to territory, and during this time he survived several more dangerous ordeals - including having an arrow shot through his back by a Native American in New Mexico. A full decade after the events of shown in The Revenant, it is generally believed that Glass met his demise at the hands of the Arikara tribe – native to the Dakota Territory.

Which Do You Prefer?

The artistic licenses taken by The Revenant open up an interesting question for us to examine: which story do you prefer? As it stands, the ending of the movie leaves the fate of DiCaprio’s Glass somewhat ambiguous: he has achieved his goal of revenge, and he’s on death’s doorstep in the middle of the wilderness, but we don’t necessarily see him die. By contrast, the real Glass is believed to have lived for at least a decade following the events that unfold in The Revenant. Both of these versions lend themselves to amazing storytelling, so how should we interpret the film?

On one hand, having Glass die at the end of the film feels like a fitting way to cap off the film’s story. He achieves the one thing that compels him to stand up and leave his dead son’s body: getting revenge against Fitzgerald in the desolate, snowy mountains. Glass states that he no longer fears death because he has already died before; he’s a man whose mind and loved ones have already crossed over to the other side, so the fulfillment of his revenge is the last thing he needs to do before he can join them. It’s the sort of mentality previously cinematically presented in Joe Carnahan’s The Grey, which frames survival more as a matter of dying with one’s boots on, rather than literally prolonging one's life. From this point of view, it could be easily argued that DiCaprio’s version of Glass has earned the respite of death, and breathes his last breaths during the credits.

On the other hand – even if we ignore the real life fact that Glass made it out alive – Glass’ survival seems somewhat essential in order to hammer home the theme of the movie. The last thing we as an audience hear as the credits roll is Glass’ breath, weak but persistent, emphasizing his own begrudging commitment to the film’s theme of survival. A mentality is presented repeatedly throughout the film that as long as we have the physical capacity to draw breath, we must endeavor to keep doing so. He wants so badly to join the love of his life by the time the credits roll, but she walks away from him into the woods because they both know his time has not come yet

The film provides no concrete explanation to these profound questions, and as a result we as the audience are left debating the events we have just witnessed. Perhaps that’s the beauty of a film such as The Revenant - it’s lack of answers forces us to think, and as a result we learn a thing or two about the way we view the world. Now if you'll excuse me I am going to go take another shower because I still have some Revenant on me.

This poll is no longer available.

Having been ushered into select cinemas over Christmas, The Revenant was finally given a wide release on Thursday night where it made a rather impressive start in just a couple of hours.

Want numbers? Well, according to The Wrap, The Revenant grossed $2.3 million from 2,501 screens, which means that it’s on track to match 20th Century Fox’s projected total of somewhere between $20 and $24 million for the weekend.

That's something that the studio will be relieved about since The Revenant ended up costing them substantially more than they originally envisioned. At first Fox planned to spend around $60 million on the ambitious epic. However, things soon spiralled out of control with production and The Revenant ended up costing over double that amount, eventually coming in at around $135 million.

It’s believed that The Revenant will need to make somewhere around $300 million just to break even, which is a total that it could reach thanks to the surroundig Oscar buzz. Alejandro Inarritu’s last film, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance), made an impressive $103.2 million last year, and that was released in October rather than January, where it soon got overwhelmed by The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 and the Christmas slate.

The Revenant now has a pretty clear few weeks to try and amass a hefty total, with horror flick The Forest its only competition this week. Michael Bay’s 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi, the Kevin Hart and Ice Cub led Ride Along 2, Robert De Niro and Zac Efron’s comedy Dirty Grandpa, and Natalie Portman’s Jane Got A Gun are the only other films being released in January that could seduce its audience. Obviously Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight is still sniffing around too.

It’s hard to know the kind of push that the Oscar buzz surrounding Leonardo Di Caprio’s towering performance will give to its box office haul. Obviously, having Leo in the film in the first place means that there is a more mainstream appeal to The Revenant than Birdman – arguably The Wolf Of Wall Street’s $392 million and The Great Gatsby’s $351 million totals were in large part because of him – and interest is certainly going to be increased because of the chatter that this may finally land him an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Without the award or nominations, I’m guessing that it will be enough for The Revenant to break even, especially since people are still probably intrigued by the whole "bear rape" fiasco. But if Leonardo DiCaprio does actually win the Academy Award then you can expect The Revenant to receive a gargantuan push that will probably even tip it over the $400 million mark.

This weekend will be a big indication of Leonardo DiCaprio’s chances of Oscar glory, as the actor has been nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for his work. Let’s hope he does win, because the talk over his lack of awards recognition became tedious a long time ago.

If you’ve watched Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s latest film, The Revenant, you know that it’s a brutal, punishing movie. And if you haven’t, prepare yourself for an endurance test. At this stage, tales of the hardships the cast and crew faced on set have become almost as big a deal as the movie itself. And though the movie is earning quite a bit of praise, don’t expect to see Inarritu make another movie like this, ever.

Inarritu, who won the Best Director Oscar last year for Birdman, talked about the film and the production process with The Frame, and when the subject of tackling other projects like this came up, he was very frank. He said:

The Revenant tells the story of Hugh Glass, a real-life trapper and guide on the frontier of the 1820s, played by a damn near feral Leonardo DiCaprio. After getting mauled by a bear (not raped by a bear, as some reported), being left for dead, and witnessing his son’s murder, Glass embarks on an epic, harrowing journey of survival through the frozen northern winter to exact revenge on the man responsible.

A pummeling as the story is, bringing it to life was almost an equally herculean a task. Tons of stories about the troubles on set and adverse filming conditions—which, at one point, led some members of the crew to leave the production—have made the rounds, so even though Inarritu seems pleased with the finished product, it’s easy to see why he might not want to tackle anything of this ilk ever again.

Members of the cast and crew persisted through an extensive, months long shoot, almost all of which took place outdoors in freezing, subzero conditions—both in Canada and, later, Argentina, where they relocated for more snowy conditions—which even caused the equipment to fail in some instances. DiCaprio endured a near-starvation diet and multiple scenes where he’s climbing in and out of rushing rivers in the dead of winter. He has said it’s the "toughest" film he’s ever made.

This is definitely a "once in a lifetime" type of experience, but it’s also sounds like one of those that, once you’ve lived through it, you may not be super eager to tackle again anytime soon.

The Revenant is playing in select markets now and expands to more in the coming weeks.

You may have found yourself forced to picture the ungainly image of Leonardo DCaprio being raped by a bear this week. The first reactions to The Revenant saw audiences insist that it was a brutal and gory tour-de-force. But then after it was murmured that a bear in the film rapes DiCaprio’s character, twice, publications started to pick up on the rumor and began printing it as fact. It’s since been cleared up that nothing of the sort happens, and now director Alejandro Inarritu can’t stop laughing about it.

Inarritu, who last February picked up the Best Director Oscar for his work on Birdman – an achievement that must have felt like a million years ago at times this week, has come out and admitted that he’s been keeping up to date with all of the goings this week regarding the first responses to The Revenant. As such, the eye grabbing headlines that involved Leanardo DiCaprio being raped by a bear immediately grabbed hold of Inarritu’s eyes and left him perplexed. At least now that everything has been cleared up he can see the funny side of it though. Talking to the LA Times, he explained:

In response to these events, Inarritu’s mind immediately led him to a critique of the media. He compared the "pathetic" way that the story grew from one "guy in a garage inventing something" to it then being acknowledged as news after papers around the world printed it to something resembling a Saturday Night Live sketch. And it’s hard to disagree with him.

This entire chain of events started when entertainment columnist Roger Friedman detailed a specific scene in The Revenant that sees Leonardo DiCaprio’s Hugh Glass being attacked by a bear, who is simply looking to protect her cubs. In his description, Glass writes "that the bear flips Glass over on his belly and molests him – dry humps him actually – as he nearly devours him." Unfortunately, Friedman's understandably vague – he is, after all, reviewing the film and trying not to ruin it – but still needlessly sexual description of the scene provoked other outlets to twist his words into allegations that DiCaprio’s character is raped.

As the stories on this matter accumulated, Fox was forced to come out and release a statement denying that there is a "rape scene with a bear" in The Revenant. Their proof? The bear was a female who is simply protecting her cubs.

Not that Fox should be complaining. Because of this The Revenant has received an almighty promotional push ahead of its December 25 release date, which, since the week old Star Wars: The Force Awakens will still be dominating multiplexes, will be much needed.

Alejandro Iñárritu’s The Revenant is poised to potentially make a serious impression this Oscar season. The film features an all-star cast – consisting of no less than Tom Hardy, Domnhall Gleeson, and Leonardo DiCaprio – beautiful cinematography, and a gripping, dark, yet straightforward story about revenge in the North American wilderness. However, not everyone who has attended advance screenings of the film enjoyed themselves. Early reports indicate that some people had to walk out of the theater for one reason: the overwhelming gore.

According to a report in THR, some attendees of early screenings of The Revenant walked out of the film because they could not stomach the movie’s gory content. Part of the reason for the general reaction apparently stems from the fact that some critics who have seen the film feel that the intense violence does not serve a greater purpose. One Academy member who contacted the trade said:

It’s a difficult assessment to make, because indeed many films that have won Best Picture in recent years have used violence to elevate their content and get a deeper message across. For example, as gratuitous as 2010 Oscar winner The Hurt Locker was, its violence carried with it themes regarding the hell of war, and how that hell can become an addiction that some soldiers begin to crave. That being said, upon examination, The Revenant does appear to posit thematic questions regarding trials of the human spirit and the importance of perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds, but we'll have to wait and see for ourselves.

For those of you who don’t know, The Revenant is a story of revenge on the American Frontier during the 19^th century. When Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) is attacked by a bear, witnesses the murder of his son, and is left for dead by the rest of his hunting party, he recuperates and embarks on a journey to exact justice upon the men responsible for his pain and suffering. Check out the trailer below to get a better sense of how the film will play out.

It’s worth pointing out, however, that these opinions do represent a minority of critics who have seen the film. By and large, most have praised it and it has generated quite a bit of Oscar buzz, especially where Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance is concerned. Any issue taken with that film went towards the violence, and not necessarily towards the actors involved in the production. Mainstream audiences will find out whether or not they can handle the blood and gore in The Revenant when the film hits theaters this Christmas.

Last year’s Best Picture Oscar went to Birdman. While the film has some great performances that had a lot to do with the win, another reason it was so popular among movies fans was that it was technically impressive. The movie appears to run as one continuous shot with zero edits. You probably already guessed that it wasn’t actually filmed that way. However, a new video goes into the details of how the cuts between takes were hidden to the audience. Check it out.

The Film Theorists YouTube channel uses their Frame by Frame show to dive into the individual frames to show you where the cuts actually were even though you probably didn’t notice them when you saw the movie. It turns out motion blur is the filmmaker's’ friend. It also digs into the history of hiding cuts, going back to Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope as an example of an early film that did the same thing. While Rope only used a single method to hide the breaks, Birdman uses several that prevent the audience from seeing where one take ends and the next begins.

While Hitchcock’s cuts are a little more obvious than those of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, we have to give Hitchcock credit. He only made cuts when the camera ran out of film, meaning that his scenes are 10-minutes-long in between those moments where he blacks out the screen. This makes the whole thing not just technically impressive but theatrically as well, as all the actors had to get their parts right for 10 minutes at a time. Any screw up meant returning to the beginning. Iñárritu doesn’t run his scenes nearly that long, but he does use a variety of different methods to hide the cuts and does so in a way that makes them much less obvious. We’re not taking anything away from his actors. They actually do a better job than Hitchcock’s in making the scene feel continuous.

This is far from the first time that Birdman and Rope have been put side by side as the comparison is obvious. It’s a comparison that Iñárritu wishes people would stop making, because he doesn’t actually care very much for Rope. To be fair, the Birdman director doesn’t have a problem with the film’s filming techniques, rather that it just isn’t a very good movie. The film deals with two young men who kill a classmate in order to see if they can get away with the perfect murder. Jimmy Stewart plays the former professor the men use as their test to see if they can fool him. The majority of the film is the three actors talking at length.

Does the analysis of hidden cuts destroy the film’s magic, or is it educational to see how it was done? Let us know your thoughts.

No one is going to accuse Leonardo DiCaprio of phoning it in anytime soon. There’s that well documented incident during Django Unchained where he seriously cut his hand during a scene but kept on going — the shot made it into the finished film. However, he apparently took this dedication to even greater lengths for his latest movie, The Revenant, and he actually slept in an animal carcass.

Set on the unforgiving frontier of the 1820s, The Revenant is a grim story of revenge and survival, and talking to Yahoo, DiCaprio reveals that the shoot was no picnic either. He says that he had to do some of the most difficult things he’s ever done on set in pursuit of authenticity, and that includes sleeping inside of an animal corpse.

The actor, who is still fishing for that Academy Award win that has eluded him despite widespread critical acclaim, doesn’t specify exactly what kind of animal carcass he slumbered in, like Luke in a Tauntaun, but it must have been rather large. In the movie there are buffalo, horses, and of course that bear that mauls his character, any of which has plenty of room to fit your standard Hollywood actor, maybe even some guests.

To be honest, though that’s a pretty extreme example, it’s not terribly shocking to learn that shooting The Revenant was a tough job. This meshes with what we’ve heard before, about how Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu pushed the cast and crew to the brink of safety, and possibly beyond. In fact, a number of behind the scenes players actually left the production due to concerns over their wellbeing.

Leonardo DiCaprio spent nine months in the wilderness of Canada and Argentina filming The Revenant, battling the elements, much like the character he plays. Freezing and isolated, he and the rest of team battle hard conditions that had them on the verge of hypothermia — and the actor got the worst of it, having to dive into frozen rivers and being strung to an elaborate harness for the bear mauling scene. From what we’ve seen of the film, however, it looks totally worth it, though that’s easy to say from where I sit.

DiCaprio stars as Hugh Glass, a real-life frontiersman and trapper. After being attacked by the aforementioned bear, his fellow travellers, including John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), leave him for dead. When Glass wakes up, buried alive, the sets out on the hazardous journey back to civilization, and revenge on those who left him to die.

The Revenant certainly has the potential to be incredible. As bleak and grim as it is, it once again sees Iñárritu team up with acclaimed cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, and last time they got together, we got a movie that was filmed to look like one continual shot. Can’t wait to see what they have in store this time, if nothing else it will be gorgeous.

The Revenant opens in limited release on Christmas Day and goes wide on January 8, 2016.

With a cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, and Domhnall Gleeson, and Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu at the helm, The Revenant was already one of the most anticipated films of 2015. And then that trailer, damn. The movie looks intense and harrowing, which may have carried over to the set as union reps are blasting the production over safety concerns.

Set in the American frontier of the 19th century and filming in the viciously cold Canadian wilderness, there are claims that Iñárritu and The Revenant pushed the boundaries of safety in order to get the "perfect shot." Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, local union rep Damien Petti, president of IATST local 212, said:

Petti’s statement comes as a reaction to claims by union crewmembers working on the set of The Revenant that, when they voiced their concerns over the safety of all involved, they were not taken seriously and dismissed. One even reportedly called conditions on the set a "living hell," and 15 to 20 members of the crew were either fired or quit over the situation.

Film lore is replete with tales filmmakers, actors, and entire productions going to extreme lengths to get a movie just perfect, including putting themselves in harm’s way. This is the stuff of legend in Hollywood, but it is something that Petti cautions against. He added:

Since the vast majority of us weren’t actually on the Canadian set of The Revenant, this is turning into a he said, she said situation. Production company New Regency responded to the allegations by releasing this official statement:

As with most situations like this, there is very likely truth to both sides of the story, but it does raise questions about the lengths some people in the industry are willing to in order to make a movie precisely how they want it (Tom Cruise repeatedly strapping himself to the outside of an airplane in Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation anyone?), and is it worth the risk? There are bound to be some people more willing to push the boundaries to get the perfect shot. It’s easy to imagine a driven filmmaker like Iñárritu more enthusiastic and prepared to forge ahead in adverse conditions than someone who is just doing their job on a movie set.

This is just one of many issues The Revenant has experience during production. There have been budget overruns, producers have left, and thanks to inclement weather, they still don’t have the final scene in the can. There are four more days of shooting scheduled at the very tail end of Argentina, as close to Antarctica as you can get without actually being in Antarctica, so they can get the snowy conditions they need.

We’ll be able to see The Revenant for ourselves later this year when it opens on December 25.

The first trailer for The Revenant only recently hit the web, and it’s already one of the most highly anticipated films of the year. As it turns out, Leonardo DiCaprio’s trials in the wilderness are not over. Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu ran into some issues with forces beyond his control — something called global warming — and they have to head back out into Mother Nature to finish filming.

The Revenant tells the tale of an explorer named Hugh Glass (DiCaprio), who is left for dead in the snowy landscape of the American wilderness and betrayed by his closest confidante. It’s a story of survival, and to maintain these intense stakes Iñárritu needed snow. Apparently, though, snow was not in abundance. In an interview with Grantland, the director said:

Iñárritu is preparing to take things to the South Pole, where this issue is less likely to happen. With only this one final scene left to capture, the shoot will take about six-to-seven days and hopefully happen at the end of this month. It doesn’t even matter that the release date is looming on the horizon.

The Revenant also stars Tom Hardy (Legend), Domhnall Gleeson (Star Wars: The Force Awakens), and Will Poulter (We’re the Millers), but this is all about DiCaprio. The actor, now 40, has been nominated for five Oscars — What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The Aviator, Blood Diamond, and he shared the Best Picture nom for The Wolf of Wall Street on top of his Best Actor nod — but he’s never taken home that golden statuette. Could The Revenant change all that? Watch the trailer below and check out the intense first footage.

Other films already earning some pre-awards buzz are The Danish Girl with Eddie Redmayne, Macbeth with Michael Fassbender, Southpaw with Jake Gyllenhaal, and The End of the Tour with Jason Segel. But Iñárritu’s name alone already has us perking up. Birdman was all the rage during the last awards season. Though it stumbled a bit against Boyhood at the Golden Globes, the film earned Best Director and Best Picture at the Oscars. Hopefully he’s the chosen one to end DiCaprio’s vicious and disappointing cycle of "always the bridesmaid, never the bride."

The Revenant hits theaters on December 25.

We're now only a couple of years removed from what's arguably Leonardo DiCaprio's mouthiest performance, as the guy pretty much never shut up through the course of Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street. In the actor's next film, however, he will actually be going in a completely opposite direction with his performance, as he's revealed that his role in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's The Revenant is an almost completely silent one.

With the movie's trailer launching online late last week, Grantland had the chance to interview DiCaprio about his role in the film, and the specific hurdles that the project has presented to him as an actor. Contrasting his part as Hugh Glass in The Revenant with his past work, the actor explained,

Inarritu's follow-up to Birdman, and adapted from the novel by Michael Punke, The Revenant is set in the 1820s and follows a frontiersmen named Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) who finds himself left for dead by his hunting team after a horrific bear attack. Hugh manages to survive this attack, and goes in pursuit of those that betrayed him - most notably his confident, John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). Basically, it sounds like DiCaprio is going to be alone for the bulk of the flick, and therefore will have nobody to talk to. That being said, the role won't be completely dialogue-less, as we hear him say at the beginning of the debut trailer, "I ain't afraid to die anymore. I done it already."

You can check out the footage for yourself below:

Big name actors pursuing roles that feature little-to-no dialogue is not exactly a unique thing, as it was only a couple years ago that Robert Redford put on an entirely silent performance in J.C. Chandor's All Is Lost. That being said, it will be interesting to see how Leonardo DiCaprio does with it, getting his emotions and motivations across just through body language and behavior instead of speech. Given DiCaprio's great skills, this could be a recipe for something very compelling - and perhaps his first Oscar win.

The Revenant, which also stars Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter, and Lukas Haas - is still filming, and production is actually currently moving to Argentina where Inarritu plans to get the final shots he needs. The movie will be getting a limited release on Christmas Day, and is planning a nationwide expansion in January 2016.

How does one follow up the Best Picture-winning behind-the-stage success of Birdman? If you are the genius director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, you head into the snowy woods, where Tom Hardy and Leonardo DiCaprio are fighting themselves – and others – for survival in The Revenant. The first trailer just dropped, and it’s a must watch:

Inspired by true events, The Revenant tells an incredible story of survival, of fortitude and of vengeance, with Leonardo DiCaprio playing a frontiersman in the 1800s who must go after the men who left him for dead following a bear mauling. According to the story, these men (presumably led by Hardy) robbed Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) of all of his belongings, and left him wounded. But he survived, and then was driven by an internal fire to find the men, and to pay them back for their "kindness."

Because this is an Inarritu flick, you can’t NOT marvel at the craftsmanship on display in the first Revenant trailer. As he did with Birdman (and even with Biutiful and Babel), the director challenges himself and his team with long, gorgeous, sustained shots that seem impossible to capture, but plunge you deeper into the story. Look at the horseback shot that concludes this stunning trailer, which shows DiCaprio firing at oncomers as he attempts to flee on a horse. It’s not shaky-cam quality. It’s steady, framed tight on the man’s face, and moving to the rhythm of his panting. You feel as agitated and scared as DiCaprio’s character in that moment.

Alejandro Inarritu is coming off an incredible success story with Birdman, winning Director and Screenplay Oscars, and also taking a share of the Best Picture prize. But in no way is he resting on his laurels. He was in the process of shooting The Revenant during the tail end of the Oscar campaign, and he dropped hints at how difficult of a shoot it had been. The director chose to shoot as much of (if not all of) The Revenant using natural light… meaning, if a scene takes place at dawn, they had to wait until dawn to film it. As you can imagine, that led to delays, but they seem to be back on track for an Oscar run this year.

The Revenant will open on Christmas Day for awards consideration, then expand to more markets in January.

This year's Best Picture Oscar race has been an incredibly tight one, with various frontrunners jumping ahead before receding back into the scrum over the last few months. Recently it looked like Richard Linklater's Boyhood was a lock, what with its big win at the Golden Globes, but now it seems the tide has changed. With a huge win last night, it now appears that Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Birdman is the new favorite for the honor.

As Deadline reports, last night saw the Director's Guild of America Directorial Achievement Award go to Inarritu, and as a result his film is now considered to be the front-runner in the still-going Best Picture race. The filmmaker saw a good deal of competition at the DGAs, including Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel, Clint Eastwood for American Sniper, Richard Linklater for Boyhood, and Morten Tyldum for The Imitation Game, and you may have noticed that all of those titles are also up for the Academy's big prize.

So why is this a big deal? Mostly because the DGA's have a long running recent history of matching up with Academy Award results. In the last 11 years, 10 of the DGA feature film winners went on to win the Best Director prize (the exception being in 2012 when Ang Lee won the DGA prize for Life of Pi and Ben Affleck took the Oscar for Argo). This information, paired with the fact that the title that wins the Academy Award for Best Director often also wins Best Picture, is a strong indication that Birdman will end up being the big winner when Hollywood's Biggest Night is over later this month.

This big DGA win comes on the heels of some other huge award season victories for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's dark comedy. As we reported a couple weeks ago, the film also won at the Producers Guild of America awards and also taken the Screen Actors Guild Ensemble cast prize. When you put all of those pieces together, it's entirely possible if not downright likely that it will add up to a Best Picture Academy Award.

At this point, do you think Birdman has the momentum to take it to this year's top prize at the Oscars ? Or do you still think there's time for another nominated film to make a comeback and get what many would consider at this point to be an upset win? Answer our poll below, and stay tuned for our coverage of the Academy Awards on February 22nd.

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The Revenant, the upcoming ambitious outdoor epic by Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu is apparently a really, REALLY difficult shoot. The historical survival/revenge drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio has been shooting for six months in the rather inhospitable Canadian wilderness - but according to the director, it has all been working out as he originally planned. It turns out that his desire to film in extremely remote locations has led him to make the movie in a very unconventional manner: he's filming the movie in very small bits and pieces.

Inarritu recently sat down for an interview with Deadline, which eventually saw the subject shift to The Revenant - a project that sees him constantly flying back and forth to wintery Calgary while he also participates in award season campaigning for Birdman. For the director, his unconventional cinematography and psychology in Birdman has garnered a tremendous amount of momentum, including, notably, some Oscar hopes. However, that film’s urban setting could be compared to a luxurious dream in comparison to the snow-ridden woods, nestled far away from any signs of civilization that The Revenant is currently providing the director. The elements have proven to be a formal adversary and has forced Iñárritu into a what will be a 9 month shoot that culminates in either April or May - with shoots chopped into "very small hours," thanks to the extremely limited sunlight. The filmmaker explained,

For all the confidence and momentum on which Iñárritu is currently riding, this shoot definitely has him rattled and thinking he bit off a bit more than he can chew. In a surprising bit of professional candor, the director told the interviewer, "I’ve gotten myself into trouble again, but I’m trying my best." However, tough-ass shoot aside, Iñárritu remains resolute, and it will be interesting to see what will come out when a historical wilderness story is put through the creative mixer of his artfully unique pathos-heavy palette.

The Revenant will have Leonardo DiCaprio putting on a performance unlike anything we've previously seen from him, playing a dirty, rugged mountain man named Hugh Glass, whose real-life survival ordeal is the stuff of legend. Out with a hunting party, Glass would be attacked by a bear and left for dead by a craven duo (played by Tom Hardy and Will Poulter) who were tasked with either helping him recover or burying him with proper respect. Glass would channel some unprecedented badassery by not only surviving, but making a brutal 200 mile journey across present day South Dakota, sporting gravely gruesome injuries. His motivation for survival? Revenge. Pure and simple. Will he get it? Well, we’ll just have to wait and see. It will be like Jeremiah Johnson and the Kill Bill films had a rugged, yet still aesthetically pleasing DiCaprio baby.

Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant looks to reinvent historical drama into deep psychological justice porn when it is set to hit theaters on January 8, 2016.

Normally, directors usually go out of their way to heap praise onto Alfred Hitchcock, rather than bad-mouthing one of his most-revered films. But Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is a breathtakingly unique filmmaker, and after his hugely anticipated black comedy, Birdman, was recently compared to Hitchcock’s 1948 thriller Rope, he surprised many by reacting negatively to the analogy.

One of the big talking points about Birdman has been that it ambitiously sets out to come across as though it were filmed as one long continuous take. This, of course, has been done before, most notably by Alfred Hitchcock when he made the thriller Rope. However, during a discussion with Time to promote Birdman Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu admitted that he doesn’t like that his film is constantly being compared to Rope. Because, well, he hates Hitchcock’s film.

To be fair to Inarritu, it’s not as though he has a problem with Hitchcock’s attempt to shoot the long scenes - it’s just that he clearly has an issue with its plot and attempts to create suspense. Reviews at the time of the film’s release echoed these sentiments too, with Variety magazine declaring, "Hitchcock could have chosen a more entertaining subject with which to use the arresting camera and staging technique displayed in Rope."

However it would also be very harsh to try and genuinely compare Birdman and Rope’s technical achievements too. Hitchcock’s film was created during an era when the cameras were so cumbersome and large that it was impossible to move or pan the device without laborious effort - and there wasn’t any CGI or special effects to assist his attempt either. Instead, he had to either pan against or track into an object, which included zooming into a jacket that blocked the entire screen, in order to hide his edits. He also had to contend with the fact that the length of a film camera magazine back in 1948 was only ten minutes long, which meant that he needed to cut at that point wherever the camera was. This means that rather than being one long continuous take, Rope is actually made up of 10 segments.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu had no such issues with Birdman, as he was able to seamlessly track through a variety of locations, allow day to turn into night, and to even deploy expensive special effects that meant he could make it look as if a giant bird had just destroyed a car on a New York street. Either way, it doesn’t really matter. Both films have their merits, but while Rope was almost condescendingly appreciated rather than adored, Birdman has so far been met with near universal acclaim ahead of its release on Friday. Hitchcock would probably beat Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu in a pie-eating contest, though.

While this morning’s partial reveal of 2014's Toronto International Film Festival screenings was noticeably missing Alejandro González Iñárritu’s highly anticipated comedy Birdman, the director’s upcoming small-screen effort One Percent is at the center of some excellent casting news. The Media Rights Capital-produced series has targeted Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank, Oscar-nominated actor Ed Harris, and Hangover star Ed Helms, and each of them are in various stages of negotiations to join what will presumably be a prestige-laden show.

Should all go according to plan, the hour-long One Percent would take place within the world of organic farming – what? – and would see Helms and Swank playing a married couple who are having problems keeping their business above water, which of course leads to personal problems. As Deadline reports, Harris would star as the family patriarch, though it doesn’t say whose father he would play.

That isn’t much to go on, and doesn’t really hint too directly at what the title means. Is this the dreaded Occupation protesters’ “one percent,” or does it refer to something involving the farming community? Maybe that’s the percentage of startup businesses that actually stay open after a certain period of time. Regardless of what this plain-sounding story ends up being, I’m willing to trust that Iñárritu and this trio of actors wouldn’t team up on a complete waste of time.

Iñárritu will indeed be directing the series from a screenplay written with Birdman collaborators Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolas Giacobone and Armando Bo. MRC is expected to shop the series around in the coming weeks, probably trying to secure a straight-to-series order rather than going the pilot route. MRC, who worked with Seth MacFarlane on Ted and A Million Ways to Die in the West, snagged a two-season order for MacFarlane’s upcoming live-action comedy for Starz, and they're also one of the companies behind Netflix’s House of Cards, which was naturally also granted an all-at-once series order.

Should One Percent go through, this would be Swank’s first TV series since starring on Beverly Hills 90210 in the late 1990s. She hasn’t been in a lot of movies lately, either, having most recently starred in Philip Noyce and HBO Films’ made-for-TV drama Mary and Martha. She’ll soon be seen in Tommy Lee Jones’ western The Homesman and in George C. Wolfe’s caregiver drama You’re Not You.

Harris, meanwhile, starred in the at-long-last recently released thriller Snowpiercer and voiced a character for the in-theaters animation Planes: Fire & Rescue. He’s got an assortment of upcoming projects, including Michael Almereyda’s modernized Shakespeare epic Cymbeline, Michael Berry’s border drama Frontera, Jaume Collet-Serra’s hitman thriller Run All Night and Pamela Romanowsky’s adaptation of Stephen Elliott’s memoir The Adderall Diaries, which is currently filming. Oddly enough, Harris has never had a leading TV role.

Helms, who for years played Dunder Mifflin’s most bluegrassy employee on The Office, last appeared in theaters nationwide in We’re the Millers, but can be found on VOD in David Wain’s clever rom-com spoof They Came Together. He’ll next be seen in Joe Carnahan’s Stretch, assuming that film ever gets released, and will be heard in the upcoming Captain Underpants animated adaptation.

After just a little more than a month of development, director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu decided that making a new adaptation of The Jungle Book with Warner Bros. just wasn't going to fit into his schedule, but already, it seems, the studio has found a replacement. Sources have informed The Hollywood Reporter that Ron Howard is currently in negotiations to take over the project both as a director and a producer.

The new adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's classic collection of short stories is being written by Callie Kloves, who is the daughter of Harry Potter scribe Steve Kloves (also a producer on The Jungle Book). The film will tell the classic tale of Mowgli, an orphan boy raised by wolves in the jungles of India, who finds himself pulled between both the human and animal worlds. In addition to having been adapted multiple times before - the most notable versions being Disney's animated movie from 1967 and director Stephen Sommers's live-action take in 1994 - this is actually just one of two new Jungle Book films in the works, the other one set up at Walt Disney Studios with Jon Favreau directing.

As THR points out, most of Howard's directorial efforts has been primarily made at adults (Frost/Nixon, The Da Vinci Code, A Beautiful Mind), but he does have some experience in the world of family filmmaking. His first came in 1988 when he made the fantasy tale Willow with Warwick Davis and Val Kilmer:

And then in 2000 he made the live-action version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas with Jim Carrey.

As a director Howard has always been good at regularly producing films, but he has been more active than ever lately. Last fall he released the racing drama Rush - which earned quite a bit of critical acclaim - and he is already in post-production on his adaptation of Heart of the Sea. In addition to The Jungle Book he is also attached to direct an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, as well as Inferno, the latest Dan Brown movie. At this stage it's hard to say exactly how his schedule is going to work out, but it's worth mentioning that Inferno already has a December 18, 2015 release date. If Warner Bros. is desperate enough, maybe Howard will try and sneak Jungle Book into his calendar somewhere before then.

We’ve got ourselves another competing project-logjam! The good old days of Volcano/Dante’s Peak, Babe and Gordy and Prefontaine and Without Limits is still with us, as proved by last year’s Olympus Has Fallen/White House Down confrontation. Studios have tried to avoid this in recent years, axing a Howard Hughes film by Chris Nolan and an Alexander The Great film by Baz Luhrman, but sometimes you just end up with two competing Truman Capote movies. It happens, and it’s about to happen again: Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book is in the public domain, which means we could have two versions of the film coming up.

Disney’s version has the strength of Iron Man architect Jon Favreau onboard. It also has an association with the source material, having provided the classic animated adaptation from the sixties, not to mention a live-action version in 1994 that grossed $43 million, which in 2014 dollars translates to $900 billion and a half, roughly. Warner Bros. thought they had an ace in the hole with Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, the whimsy-provider who previously directed Babel. It’s easy to see how this could have been Inarritu’s Life Of Pi, but Deadline reports that he’s now out, with the studio seeking a replacement.

The belief is that Inarritu bolted because of scheduling reasons, with the WB racing the Disney version to the screen. Disney’s not the type to fold, but it would inconvenience them if the WB Jungle Book hit the big screen first; the WB would likely fold the project if Disney got there first, and right now they certainly have a leg up. The WB version, penned by Callie Kloves (son of Steve Kloves, a Harry Potter scribe), is looking to get started immediately, though it’s possible Inarritu wanted more time: he’s also putting the finishing touches on his ambitious show business comedy Birdman, which stars Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Andrea Riseborough and Zach Galifianakis.

Inarritu has also long been attached to The Revenant a badass bearfight actioner that’s been in development with a number of interesting leading men attached, including Christian Bale, Samuel L. Jackson and Sean Penn. That story, like The Jungle Book, involves a man who survives in the wilderness alone. In this case, however, that man is left for dead by his partners after a bear attack, determined to seek revenge. The bleakness of that seems more fitting for Inarritu, a man who has trafficked in miserablism and despair in his earlier films. Maybe Birdman is a sign that he wants to try something new, and the man’s raw talent is enough to suggest that could, and should happen soon. Not on The Jungle Book, though.

In recent years we've seen double Truman Capote movies, double fuck buddy movies, double Snow White movies and double "Die Hard in the White House" movies, but now it's time to prepare for double Jungle Book movies. Following news from last month that Disney has hired director Jon Favreau to helm a new adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's famous book, Variety is now reporting that Warner Bros. is developing a version of their own. What's more, they're now in talks with Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu to direct.

The feature would be the first tent pole project for Inarritu, who has spent most of his career making crushing, bleak dramas like 21 Grams, Biutiful, Babel and Amores Perros. The new feature will bring to life the most famous story from Kipling's collection and tell the tale of Mowgli the orphan jungle boy who must face off against the evil tiger Shere-Khan. There have been many adaptations before, but the two most recognized and popular today are probably the Disney animated version from 1967:

And the live action movie from 1994 that was directed by Stephen Sommers.

Presumably Warner Bros. is aiming to get their version made as soon as possible so that they can beat Disney to the box office. Steve Kloves, who is best known for his screenwriting work on all of the Harry Potter films, is producing the film while newcomer Callie Kloves is penning the script.

Inarritu is best known for his dark, depressing dramas, but he has been changing his tune up a bit lately. He is currently in post production on his first comedy, a movie called Birdman that follows a washed-up actor (Michael Keaton) who tries to reignite his career by putting on a huge Broadway play. The supporting cast is filled to the brim with talented stars, including Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Andrea Riseborough, Zach Galifianakis and Amy Ryan. The movies doesn't have a release date just yet, but it is set to be distributed by Fox Searchlight and is expected to come out some time next year.

In the battle of Jungle Book adaptations, which do you think sounds more appealing? Would you rather see Jon Favreau's likely more-lighthearted take or Inarritu's more serious version? Answer our poll and tell us what you think.

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Nobody in their right mind would ever use the adjective "fun" to describe a film by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Best known for movies like Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel and Biutiful, the filmmaker doesn't so much use his movies to show hope and brightness in life, but instead usually uses them to crush happiness and give audiences mild cases of depression. So of course Inarritu's next film is going to be a comedy.

The Hollywood Reporter is saying that the Mexican filmmaker's next project will be Birdman, a laugher that he co-wrote with Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo. An original premise, the movie is about an actor way past his prime. Earlier in his career he had made it big by playing an iconic superhero (presumably Birdman), but he has since lost all of his fame and fortune. In an attempt to see his name in lights once again, he decides that his best course of action is to stage a Broadway play. The film will have an interesting structure, as it will all take place in one location over the course of three days. There are no names mentioned as possibilities for the lead, but they are aiming to get production started in March, so expect casting announcements soon.

On the dramatic side, Inarritu is still playing on making the gritty revenge thriller The Revenant. That project has caught the interest of Leonardo DiCaprio, who the trade says "has been flirting with [it] on-and-off for month." Assuming that Birdman does come together in time to shoot early next year that film will probably be his follow-up.

Back when Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu announced that his next directorial effort would be the period revenge thriller The Revenant, it was rumored he might reunite with his Biutiful leading man. Then Javier Bardem moved on to the high-profile gig of playing >a Bond villain, and Inarritu was forced to look elsewhere.

According to Deadline, the Babel director now would like to cast his 21 Grams lead Sean Penn alongside Leonardo DiCaprio for an adaptation of Michael Punke’s novel. The story follows frontiersmen in the 1820 who encounter a bear while on a fur-trapping expedition. When one trapper is mauled so badly he can’t be transported back to safety, his friend hires two men to watch him as he goes for help. The men, however, rob the wounded stranger, convinced he won’t make it. Guess what? He does, and sets out to track those who’ve wronged him.

The site says Inarritu would like Penn to play one of the wicked men who abandoned the mauled frontiersman. I wonder if that means DiCaprio, should he sign on, would play the bear victim who eventually muscles up and tracks the two fiends. Coming off of Django Unchained, this could be back-to-back badass period pieces for the Titanic pretty boy. Then again, Penn’s also hard at work on Gangster Squad, so he’s no slouch in the macho department. While I’m disappointed to hear that Bardem’s out, Inarritu instantly helps The Revenant if he’s able to lure Penn and DiCaprio to the project. We’ll keep you posted.

Count me among thodr who thought Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Javier Bardem brought out the best in each other for the soul-stirring Biutiful, a difficult drama about facing down one’s mortality, that earned the actor a well-deserved Best Actor nomination at last year's Academy Awards. In fact, I so enjoyed the duo’s collaboration that I desperately hope they find a way to work together on Inarritu’s next project, which was just announced by The Wrap.

The Babel and 21 Grams director will adapt The Revenant, a revenge story set in the 1800s that was penned by novelist Michael Punke. The lead character is a fur trader who is mortally wounded in a bear attack. Though his partner, the captain of the lead's ship, attempts to carry the wounded man to safety, he eventually gives up and leaves his damaged friend to die. The captain hires two men to stay back and bury the fur trader, but instead of protecting him they rob him of his things and leave. The twist comes when the fur trader survives and sets out on a mission to make the two thieves pay.

Tell me you wouldn’t want to see Bardem in the role of the fur trader? It could be perfect training for his eventual turn as Roland, gunslinger in search of the legendary Dark Tower… if that ever comes to pass.

The Wrap notes that Mark L. Smith wrote the screenplay while Akiva Goldsman is on board to produce. No word on whether Smith’s narrative jumps from start to finish to middle to start and back to middle, which is how Inarritu prefers to tell most of his stories. Either way, the material appears tailored to his strengths, and if he can somehow coax Bardem into any of the stated roles, I’ll be gung-ho for The Revenant.

The holiday release season is always tricky. School vacations, days off, Christmas, New Years, all of these factors play a role in studios decisions about when to put their films in front of people so that A) people will be around to see them, and B) so they don’t get overshadowed by other films looking for attention from the Academy

According to press releases, two soon-to-be released films, visionary director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s drama Biutiful and controversial, newly R-rated Blue Valentine, are getting the holiday shuffle to make sure that viewers don’t overlook them. First off, Blue Valentine has been bumped from a treacherous New Years Eve release to two days earlier on December 29th. You may say this makes no sense, but believe me, the rate of vacationers willing to go see a movie on a Wednesday night rather than try to see it in between Friday night parties and New Years Day hang overs will be much higher.

As such, Biutiful has been bumped from it’s December 29th release all the way to January 28th, presumably to not be overshadowed by not only the release of Blue Valentine, but also the leftover film goers who didn’t rush to see True Grit, Narnia or Tron.

Now the question is, what are you guys going to be seeing while you’re on break?

Despite rave reviews coming out of this year's Cannes Film Festival, Javier Bardem winning the Best Actor award in the process, it took three months for Alejandro González Iñárritu's Biutiful to find a distributor. Fortunately, Roadside Attractions and Liddell Entertainment came to the rescue back in August and have prepped the film to go full steam into award season with a limited release on December 29th (the film has to be shown in LA during the calendar year in order to be eligible for the major awards at the Oscars. Now we have the first domestic trailer for the film courtesy of Apple.

Iñárritu's first full-length Spanish language film since Amores Perros in 2000, Bardem plays an underground figure and single dad who, fearing his own imminent death, tries to reconcile with a lost love. The whole thing sounds and looks incredibly bleak, but word around town is that it's quite powerful. Look for this one to get attention in not only the foreign language category, but possibly everywhere else.

Check out the trailer below or in HD over at Apple.

When the Cannes Film Festival was held in May, it was a no-brainer that the newest film from Alejandro González Iñárritu, Biutiful, would be picked up for distribution. After all, it was a movie by an acclaimed director that starred an Oscar winner, Javier Bardem (who, consequently, took home the best actor prize at the festival). Three months later, however, the film has not found a studio deal. Until today.

It has been announced via press release that Biutiful has been picked up for domestic release in a collaboration between Roadside Attractions and Liddell Entertainment. Set to make its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, which begins on September 9th. The film will be released in December, though no official date has been set. The film is expected to be a contender during this year's award season.

For those unfamiliar with the movie, you can check out the trailer below as well as the film's plot synopsis from IMDb.

Even though Biutiful got a pretty warm reception at this year's Cannes Film Festival and even earned Javier Bardem a Best Actor prize there, it still hasn't managed to get a U.S. distributor, which I guess isn't all that surprising. After all, it's a very elegant and serious-looking film from a good filmmaker who isn't Christopher Nolan, and therefore it's going to be hard to sell too many audiences on it. Still, it's surprising that a movie led by recently minted Oscar winner Javier Bardem and Babel director Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu couldn't sell here, so expect Biutiful to show up on these shores… maybe in time for Oscar season?

In the meantime, though, Focus Features has released a trailer for the UK, which Empire has debuted and you can watch below. It's the kind of trailer that shows off a lot of beautiful visuals and some vague narration, all with the intention of making you intrigued while giving you no idea of what you're looking at. In short, I like it. Take a look below and cross those fingers for a U.S. release sometime soon.

There's been a lot of gossip and high hopes among festival types this week about what might be on this year's Cannes lineup. Would Terrence Malick's Tree of Life finally be finished in time to debut there? Would Christopher Nolan show up with Inception? Would Steven Soderbergh have secretly completed yet another movie to show off there?

The answer to all three of those questions, as it turns out, is no, but the just-announced Cannes lineup (via THR) is pretty exciting even for those of us watching the action from these shores. Some of the major competition titles include Mike Leigh's mysterious new film Another Year, the Javier Bardem-starring Biutiful from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, and Doug Liman's Fair Game, a take on the Valerie Plame case that stars Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.

The United States, as usual, isn't all that represented, with Fair Game the only American competition title, and only Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine-- which debuted at Sundance this year-- waving the stars and stripes in Un Certain Regard. Of course, that's fine-- Cannes is a deliberately international festival and shows off some of the excellent foreign films that get roundly ignored over here. But when American auteurs are on top of their game they often show up at Cannes, and it's disappointing to see so few of them on board here.

Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux said they're still holding out hope that Malick's film will be finished in time to bow there after all, and there are six or seven more titles still to be added-- which means Inception may make it after all. But otherwise the lineup is here. Head to THR for the full list, and if you're lucky enough to be headed to France to see all these, do us a favor and keep it to yourself.