Summary
- Val Kilmer, who passed away in April 2025, will posthumously star in As Deep as the Grave via generative AI, playing Father Fintan — a role he was cast in five years before his death but never filmed due to his battle with throat cancer.
- The AI-generated performance was built using younger images and late-life footage of Kilmer provided by his family, and includes a reconstructed voice drawn from recordings made in his final years.
- Director Coerte Voorhees and Kilmer’s estate — including daughter Mercedes and son Jack — are all on board, with the family calling the project something Val “really wanted his name on.”
Here’s something Hollywood hasn’t quite figured out how to feel about yet: Val Kilmer is officially starring in a new movie. The catch? He died nearly a year ago.
On March 18, Variety broke the news that indie production company First Line Films will use generative AI to resurrect the late actor for As Deep as the Grave, a historical drama formerly known as Canyon of the Dead. Kilmer was originally cast five years ago in the role of Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist — but his deteriorating health from throat cancer meant he never shot a single scene. Now, in 2026, AI is doing the heavy lifting.
Director and screenwriter Coerte Voorhees was never going to let the role go to someone else. “He was the actor I wanted to play this role,” he 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.”
So rather than recast, Voorhees leaned into technology — and into the Kilmer family. Both Mercedes Kilmer (Val’s daughter, who has her own filmmaking background) and son Jack are reportedly supportive of the project. The AI version of Kilmer was constructed using a mix of younger photos and footage from his final years, allowing the character to be shown across different stages of his life.
There’s also a genuinely eerie biographical symmetry at play here. Father Fintan, the historical figure Kilmer was set to portray, suffered from tuberculosis — a condition that, much like Kilmer’s own throat cancer, damaged his voice. “The character in the film also suffers from tuberculosis,” producer John Voorhees explained. “This historical character mirrored Val’s actual condition when he was suffering from throat cancer. And so when it comes to the voice, this is a really unique opportunity for the character to reflect the condition that the actor was actually suffering from.”
It’s not the first time Kilmer had turned to AI to find his voice, literally. For his reprisal of Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick, he partnered with AI company Sonantic to recreate his speaking voice. “As human beings, the ability to communicate is the core of our existence,” Kilmer said at the time, “and the side effects from throat cancer have made it difficult for others to understand me. The chance to narrate my story, in a voice that feels authentic and familiar, is an incredibly special gift.”
Mercedes, who collaborated with the production team, backed the decision wholeheartedly. “My father was a deeply spiritual man and this story of discovery and enlightenment in the American Southwest and his unique role in it really resonated with him,” she said in a statement. She added that her dad “always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling” — which, given the circumstances, reads less like a press release and more like a permission slip.
Voorhees says it was ultimately the family’s enthusiasm that pushed him over the finish line on what he acknowledged would be a polarizing call. “His family kept saying how important they thought the movie was and that Val really wanted to be a part of this,” he said. “He really thought it was an 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.”
Voorhees also addressed the practical reality of being an indie filmmaker without a studio’s blank check behind him. “Normally we would just recast an actor,” he said. “I’m all about working with our actors, and we have brilliant performances all throughout this movie. But we can’t roll camera again. We don’t have the budget. We’re not a big studio film. So we had to think of innovative ways to do it. And we realized the technology is there for us.”
As Deep as the Grave is based on the true story of Ann and Earl Morris, Southwestern archaeologists who excavated Canyon de Chelly, Arizona in search of the history of the Navajo people. Abigail Lawrie (Tin Star) and Tom Felton (Harry Potter) lead the cast, joined by Wes Studi and Abigail Breslin. Kilmer — or rather, the AI-generated version of him — will appear in what Voorhees describes as “a significant part” of the film. The production also says it followed SAG guidelines and compensated Kilmer’s estate for his appearance.
The movie is currently in post-production and seeking distribution, with hopes of a 2026 release. As for whether any of this sets a comfortable precedent — well, that’s a conversation the industry is very much still having, and As Deep as the Grave just made it significantly louder.
