For his final movie role, Val Kilmer will appear using generative AI. However, the film’s director argues there’s a good reason for this decision.
Why did Val Kilmer’s family allow him to appear via AI?
After battling numerous health issues, including throat cancer, for a decade, Kilmer died of pneumonia in April 2025. He was 65.
In 2020, Kilmer was cast in As Deep as the Grave, a film by Coerte Voorhees. In the movie, Kilmer was set to play Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist. Due to Kilmer’s throat cancer, he never shot a single scene.
“He was the actor I wanted to play this role,” Voorhees told Variety. “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.”
To finish the film, Voorhees used generative AI to include Kilmer in the ensemble. Voorhees received permission to use AI from the Kilmer estate and Kilmer’s daughter, Mercedes, and son, Jack.
“His family kept saying how important they thought the movie was and that Val really wanted to be a part of this,” Voorhees explained. “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.”
“He always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling,” Mercedes Kilmer added. “This spirit is something that we are all honoring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part.”
According to the official logline, “As Deep as the Grave 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.” The ensemble features Abigail Lawrie, Tom Felton, Wes Studi, and Abigail Breslin.
The AI version of Kilmer will be in a “significant part” of the movie. Generative AI uses Kilmer’s voice along with younger images and footage from his final years to represent the character in the movie. The filmmakers debated cutting Kilmer’s Father Fintan for budget reasons. Ultimately, they felt Kilmer’s character needed to be included in the final version.
As Deep as the Grave has no release date.
