Through AI, the Late Val Kilmer Will Appear in a New Film

Val Kilmer was not able to start filming for his latest role—but he'll be in As Deep as the Grave anyway. Writer-director Coerte Voorhees is using generative AI to insert the late actor into the independent drama about real-life archaeologists Ann and Earl Morris and their work tracing Navajo history in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona. Kilmer was cast in 2020 as Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritual guide, but throat cancer left him too ill to film, Variety reports. He died in 2025. With the approval and payment of Kilmer's estate and backing from his children Mercedes and Jack, the filmmakers created an AI version of the actor that appears in what they said is a significant portion of the film.

They're blending archival images from Kilmer's youth with footage from his final years to portray the character across different ages, and they're digitally reconstructing his voice—damaged in real life by a tracheal procedure—to match a historical character who, in the film, has tuberculosis. Producer John Voorhees calls it a bridge between Kilmer's real condition and the on-screen role. The project, which also stars Abigail Lawrie, Tom Felton, Wes Studi, and Abigail Breslin, endured six years of pandemic-era delays and budget hits, prompting the team to briefly cut Father Fintan before deciding the character was essential and turning to AI instead of reshooting or recasting.

The directors say they followed SAG-AFTRA guidelines and want the film to serve as a model for consent-based, compensated use of AI at a time when many in Hollywood fear it could replace workers or exploit performers' likenesses. Mercedes Kilmer says her father, who used AI voice tech for his return in Top Gun: Maverick, would approve. "He always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling," she said, per Entertainment Weekly.