Tom Cruiseis never far from the biggest movies of the year, and his next project is already earning him far-too-early predictions for a Best Actor nomination at next year’s 99th Academy Awards. The project in question is Digger, which sees Cruise team up with Academy Award-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu for his first English-language pic since his 2015 hit The Revenant. Scheduled for release by Warner Bros. Pictures on October 2, 2026, the film promises a satirical black comedy that also stars the likes of John Goodman, Riz Ahmed, Jesse Plemons, Sandra Hüller, and more.
As you wait for Digger to arrive, you’ll be pleased to learn that one of Cruise’s biggest sci-fi blockbusters is heading to a new streamer next month. Not to be confused with the disastrous 2025 effort of the same name, 2005’s War of the Worlds was director Steven Spielberg‘s attempt at adapting H.G. Wells‘ iconic 1898 novel, with the man behind Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrialseemingly a perfect fit for this timeless sci-fi story. However, the film wasn’t without its critics, with many complaining that most of the central characters were unlikable, something very strange for a Spielberg movie.
Despite this negative feedback, War of the Worlds was a huge hit with audiences who couldn’t get enough of Cruise, Dakota Fanning, and Justin Chatwin‘s fight against an invading alien threat. Against a reported budget of $132 million, the movie earned just over $600 million worldwide, split between a domestic haul of $234 million and a further $372 million from overseas markets. 21 years later, War of the Worlds will be available to stream on Starz starting June 1, 2026.
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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
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🔦Ellen Ripley
🔥Max Rockatansky
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01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
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02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
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03
What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
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04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
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05
You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.
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06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.
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07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?
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08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
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Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
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Arrakis · Dune
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
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You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.
USS Enterprise · Star Trek
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
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You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
The Rebellion · Star Wars
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.
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You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
The Nostromo · Alien
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
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You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.
The Wasteland · Mad Max
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
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You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
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Steven Spielberg Is Returning to Sci-Fi
21 years after Spielberg took on Wells’ 1898 novel, the legendary director is back in the sci-fi driving seat, ready to release one of this summer’s most hotly anticipated movies. Titled Disclosure Day, the film features a star-studded cast including Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colman Domingo, Wyatt Russell, Colin Firth, Elizabeth Marvel, and more. Released worldwide on June 12, the movie marks Spielberg’s first sci-fi feature since 2018’s Ready Player One, and the debut of the most recent trailer suggests this might just be one of the best sci-fi efforts of the year.
War of the Worlds will stream on Starz next month. Stay tuned to Collider for the latest streaming updates.
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