Val Kilmer Returns to Screen via AI in 'As Deep as the Grave'

The trailer for "As Deep as the Grave," a historical drama featuring a digitally recreated Val Kilmer, premiered Wednesday at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, marking the first public glimpse of an AI-generated performance built around an actor who died in April 2025. Kilmer, who passed away at the age of 65 from pneumonia following a prolonged battle with throat cancer, had originally been cast as Father Fintan — a Catholic priest and early missionary with connections to Native American culture — before his deteriorating health made filming impossible. The trailer shows Kilmer at multiple stages of life, including a youthful version of the actor kneeling before a child and delivering the film's central line. „Don't fear the dead and don't fear me.” — Val Kilmer via France 24 Director Coerte Voorhees and producer John Voorhees, brothers, presented the footage to cinema owners and industry figures at the convention. The film does not yet have a confirmed release date, though the Voorhees brothers said they hope to release it by the end of the year.

Kilmer's children opened family archives for the project The AI reconstruction was carried out with the explicit approval of Kilmer's children, Mercedes and Jack Kilmer, who granted the filmmakers access to the actor's personal video archives. According to the Voorhees brothers, Kilmer had spoken to his children before his death about his legacy and what he still wished to accomplish as an actor, and those conversations gave his family the confidence to authorize the project. The archive material allowed the production to recreate Kilmer at three different ages for the screen. „We were so glad they were excited and so supportive of the idea.” — Coerte Voorhees via France 24 Mercedes Kilmer issued a statement affirming that the project reflected her father's values. „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 honoring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part.” — Mercedes Kilmer via TheJournal.ie According to director Coerte Voorhees, the role had been conceived partly around Kilmer's own Native American heritage and his personal connection to the American Southwest.

AI Kilmer onscreen for over an hour, SAG-AFTRA rules followed The AI-generated version of Kilmer appears for of the film's runtime, according to director Coerte Voorhees, who disclosed the figure to the Washington Post. The Voorhees brothers described the digital revival as a "painstaking process," saying they spent considerable time drafting and redrafting the performance to ensure it felt faithful to how Kilmer might have approached the role. The production also reconstructed Kilmer's voice, which had been affected by a tracheotomy he underwent in 2015 during his cancer treatment. The filmmakers said they followed the guidelines established by SAG-AFTRA for the use of digital replicas, centered on what the union calls the three Cs: consent, compensation, and collaboration. „Following this process, working with the family... we can actually demonstrate the right way to do it.” — Coerte Voorhees via TheJournal.ie The filmmakers said feedback from the industry had been predominantly positive, with people recognizing the potential of the technology when applied responsibly.

Film revisits real archaeologists said to have inspired Indiana Jones "As Deep as the Grave" is a historical drama centered on Ann and Earl Morris, two American archaeologists who excavated sites connected to the ancestral Navajo and Anasazi civilizations of the American Southwest. Earl Morris has been credited by some with helping inspire the fictional character of Indiana Jones. The film's cast includes Abigail Lawrie, Tom Felton, Abigail Breslin, Tatanka Means, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Wes Studi, and Finn Jones. Kilmer's character, Father Fintan, is described as an early Catholic missionary suffering from tuberculosis who traveled to the dry climate of the Southwest and established missions in the Four Corners region. Production on the film began in 2020 but was repeatedly delayed, first by the Covid-19 pandemic and then by Kilmer's worsening health. The project's use of AI is expected to draw scrutiny given that the technology was a central point of dispute during the 2023 Hollywood strikes, when actors and writers warned that unchecked AI posed a direct threat to performers' livelihoods.

The use of artificial intelligence to recreate deceased performers has been a contested issue in Hollywood for years. The 2023 strikes by SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America brought AI regulation to the forefront of contract negotiations, with actors seeking explicit protections against unauthorized digital replication. Val Kilmer had previously worked with AI voice technology during production of "Top Gun: Maverick" (2022), where a company used AI to reconstruct his voice, which had been altered by cancer treatment. The debate over digital replicas intensified as the technology became capable of recreating not just voices but full visual performances.