- Val Kilmer is being brought back via generative AI for an upcoming movie
- Director Coerte Voorhees Says “It’s What Val Wanted”
- Even Kilmer’s kids have voiced their support for this, but it’s still a little disturbing
The late Hollywood icon Val Kilmer is making a posthumous big screen appearance – and it’s all thanks to generative AI.
As reported by Variety, Kilmer, who passed away in 2025, will be resurrected for the historical action film As deep as the grave directed by Coerte Voorhees, for whom Kilmer was cast way back in 2020. However, his declining health and throat cancer diagnosis prevented him from reaching the set, but despite not having shot a single scene, Voorhees is looking for alternative ways to keep the actor at the core of the film.
Using ‘state of the art generative AI’, Kilmer’s role in the film will be imagined using recorded voice samples as well as various images of Kilmer over the decades to help portray the character at different stages of life. According to Voorhees, the AI-generated character will feature “a significant part” of the final product, and he doubled down on his creative choices when speaking to Variety.
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“He was the actor I wanted to play this role,” claims Voorhees, who added “It was very much designed around him. It drew on his Native American heritage and his ties to and love of the Southwest. I looked at a call sheet the other day and we had him ready to shoot. He was just going through a really, really hard time medically and he couldn’t do it”. But Voorhees hasn’t done this alone.
The approval and surprisingly positive support from Kilmer’s own family also helped spearhead the creative choice, which was supported by his daughter Mercedes and son Jack – who both claim this is something their late father would have also supported.
“He always viewed new technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling,” Mercedes Kilmer said in a statement. “That spirit is something that we all pay homage to in this specific film that he was an integral part of.”
The upcoming film, which is expected to be released in 2026, is based on the true story of Southwestern archaeologists Ann and Earl Morris (Abigail Lawrie & Tom Felton), set between the 1920s and 1940s. Kilmer was cast as Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist Father Fintan, in keeping with Voorhees’ statement above. But even though the project has overwhelming support from Kilmer’s family, it still doesn’t quite suit me as a cinemagoer.
Analysis: The uncanny valley of it all
First, when you look at the teaser image of the AI-generated Val Kilmer, it goes without saying that what has been produced is quite impressive. The final product looks like Kilmer, and it’s clear that whatever generative AI model the production team used managed to read the existing images of the actor. The uncanny valley of it all throws me off a bit though.
At first glance, it’s just Val Kilmer, but the more time I spend examining the image, the more it just becomes even more obvious that it’s AI-generated, and the artificial sunset in the background doesn’t help either. The best comparison I can draw is to The Polar Express (2004), a movie I saw as a kid that begged the million dollar question: Are these real actors?
And I know what you’re thinking, “What about when this is used on musicians?” For me there is a big difference. When you attend an event like the ABBA Voyage residency in London, which uses holographic technology to bring the members of the band to life, you go into it not only knowing that it is all designed by hologram, but with the intention of appreciating the technical and artistic skills required to create such a spectacle.
This technological integration perhaps raises deeper questions, such as how Kilmer’s AI character will affect that movie experience.
Will Kilmer’s appearance prove to be too much of a distraction for moviegoers knowing it’s AI-generated beforehand? Will it overshadow the film’s message? Or will moviegoers just look past it and digest the character as if it were Val Kilmer himself? Either way, you can bet you’ll get my full verdict once it’s released.
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