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