We lost Val Kilmer almost a year ago, in April 2025. He passed from pneumonia following a long battle with throat cancer. Val was one of the greats, and his last role was a fitting one, as Ice Man in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick. I just rewatched his scene and got choked up. He’ll be remembered for that role, and for so many others. My favorites are Real Genius and The Doors. Unfortunately Kilmer’s memory is about to be tarnished with an AI-avatar of him and his voice. His family has approved an AI Val Kilmer to appear in a movie he signed on to in 2020 but couldn’t shoot due to health problems. His AI-generated avatar will play a priest in a movie unfortunately titled As Deep as the Grave.
Five years prior to his death in 2025, Val Kilmer was cast as Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist, in “As Deep as the Grave.” But Kilmer, who was battling throat cancer, was too sick to ever make it to set.
“He was the actor I wanted to play this role,” says the film’s writer and director Coerte Voorhees. “It was very much designed around him. It drew on his Native American heritage and his ties to and love of the Southwest. I was looking at a call sheet the other day, and we had him ready to shoot. He was just going through a really, really tough time medically, and he couldn’t do it.”
Even though he didn’t shoot a single scene, Voorhees has been able to realize his vision of having Kilmer in the ensemble by using state-of-the-art generative AI. And he’s done it with the cooperation of the late actor’s estate and his daughter Mercedes (Voorhees says Kilmer’s son Jack is also supportive).
“His family kept saying how important they thought the movie was and that Val really wanted to be a part of this,” says Coerte Voorhees. “He really thought it was important story that he wanted his name on. It was that support that gave me the confidence to say, okay let’s do this. Despite the fact some people might call it controversial, this is what Val wanted.”
“As Deep as the Grave,” which was previously titled “Canyon of the Dead,” is the true story of Southwestern archaeologists Ann and Earl Morris, chronicling their excavations in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona in their effort to trace the history of the Navajo people. Abigail Lawrie (“Tin Star”) stars opposite Tom Felton (“Harry Potter”), with a cast that includes Wes Studi and Abigail Breslin. Kilmer, or the AI generated version of the actor, will appear in “a significant part” of the finished film. The project uses both younger images of Kilmer, many of them provided by his family, and footage from his final years to show his character in various stages of his life. The audio also utilizes Kilmer’s voice, which, in his later life was damaged by a tracheal procedure.
Variety also reports that Kilmer’s character has tuberculosis and that his journey will mirror Kilmer’s own. They quote the filmmaker saying they ran out of money and couldn’t afford to hire an actor to shoot Kilmer’s missing scenes. That’s the crux, isn’t it? It’s cheaper short term to use AI to replace people, although the long term costs are surely going to be much highter. Other than the publicity for this stunt I doubt it will pay off for them. Audiences want to see real people, and movies centering AI have been bombing at the box office and on streaming. We don’t want slop featuring resurrected greats like Val Kilmer, even if their family agrees to it.
The vast majority of comments on Indiewire’s post about this, below, are negative. They include “I don’t care if he built the AI himself let alone gave his consent. It’s still a no,” and “Love Kilmer. No way I watch this.”
Photos credit Avalon.red, Getty Images and via Instagram
I can think of nothing more traumatizing than seeing the likeness of my deceased love one portrayed as if they were still living here on Earth. The incongruence between not having them present in my life and others experiencing them as if they were alive (and for mere entertainment value) would be too much to bear.
Have you read about the facebook/meta stuff to keep a dead person’s account posting as if they were still alive? It’s claiming to help with grief, but I honestly only see it prolonging it.
Very creepy
Yeah, this is a hell no for me. It’s a slippery slope, and while I’m sure already established actors won’t be massively affected by it, it’ll destroy the careers of all the up and comers we haven’t met yet.
Hard nope from me.
“It’s cheaper to use AI” is a terrible excuse to use AI. Perhaps Kilmer’s family could have paid the salary for a young new actor to do the role instead if money was the case and the production was out of money.
Look up accelerationism. Tech oligarchs want us all gone and replaced by AI bots.
Time to spend our attention and money elsewhere.
Rest in power Val Kilmer
That commercial for Xfinity with the AI Jurassic Park characters creeps me out, so I can’t imagine watching an entire movie of it. I can’t believe his family agreed to it. It’s just so gross to do that to your deceased loved one.
They should have come up with some other excuse. Saying it would be cheaper doesn’t inspire anyone to watch an AI of a dead person. They could have just tapped into Val Kilmer’s past movie legacy to sell the AI version — though I shouldn’t be giving any ideas.
What bizarre marketing. (Not that I would want to watch an AI of anything in the first place, even an AI of a respected actor, but I’m surprised by the laziness of using that excuse to market the movie).
And omg at the name of the movie…. paired with the AI of a dead person. I don’t want to be depressed….