Almost a year after Val Kilmer passed away in April 2025, it has been confirmed that he will appear in a new film – but not using a performance filmed before his death.
Instead Kilmer's likeness will appear in the movie As Deep as the Grave via the use of AI, utilising younger images of the actor, many provided by his family, footage from his final years, and his voice.
This news was announced alongside a first-look image shared by Variety, with the film's director, Coerte Voorhees, and his brother and producer John Voorhees, explaining the decision.
Kilmer was cast in the role of Father Fintan in 2020, but was unable to make it to set due to his illness. His addition to the film using AI has been done in cooperation with the late actor’s estate and his daughter Mercedes, while his son Jack is also reportedly supportive.
As Deep as the Grave, which stars Abigail Lawrie, Tom Felton, Wes Studi and Abigail Breslin, tells the true story of Southwestern archaeologists Ann and Earl Morris, who worked to trace the history of the Navajo people.
View oEmbed on the source websiteAn indie production, the film was shut down due to the COVID pandemic, meaning it took six years to film. At one point, the scenes involving Father Fintan were cut for budget reasons and time constraints, but the team decided later that the character was needed.
Coerte told Variety: "We really figured out that this is a major missing element. Normally we would just recast an actor. I’m all about working with our actors, and we have brilliant performances all throughout this movie. But we can’t roll camera again.
"We don’t have the budget. We’re not a big studio film. So we had to think of innovative ways to do it. And we realised the technology is there for us."
Mercedes Kilmer said in a statement about her father: "He always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling. This spirit is something that we are all honouring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part."
Val's final big screen role was in Top Gun: Maverick.
The use of AI is a highly controversial topic in Hollywood, with the 2023 writers' and actors' strikes partially addressing this topic. The announcement from an AI studio that it has created an artificially generated 'actor', Tilly Norwood, sparked a significant backlash.
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