Val Kilmer never made it to the set of As Deep as the Grave.
And yet, he is in the movie.
That sounds like a sci-fi spoiler, but it is 100% real and it happened thanks to generative artificial intelligence.
The actor, who left a mark on generations with films like Batman Forever, The Doors, and Top Gun: Maverick, was cast five years before his death in 2025 to play Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist in a feature film directed by Coerte Voorhees. The role was written with him in mind. It was deeply connected to his personal story, his ties to the American Southwest, and his Native heritage. But the throat cancer Kilmer was battling was simply too severe, and he was never able to show up for filming.
According to the director himself, Kilmer was the actor he wanted for that role. The character was built around him, drawing on his Native American heritage and his deep personal connection to the Southwest region, where the actor lived in New Mexico. Coerte Voorhees even revealed that Kilmer was on the call sheet and ready to go, but the actor’s medical condition simply would not allow him to make it to set.
What came next is one of the most fascinating and hotly debated stories in independent cinema in recent years. With the direct approval and encouragement of the actor’s family, including his daughter Mercedes and the support of his son Jack, the director decided to use cutting-edge generative AI technology to bring Kilmer into the film in a way nobody expected. The result raises important questions about ethics, legacy, and the role of artificial intelligence in filmmaking. 🎬
The Film Behind the Controversy
As Deep as the Grave, previously titled Canyon of the Dead, tells the true story of Southwest American archaeologists Ann and Earl Morris. The film follows their excavations in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, as they work to trace and document the history of the Navajo people. This is not just any fiction — it is a story based on real events that carries significant cultural weight.
The cast brings together well-known names. Abigail Lawrie, from Tin Star, leads alongside Tom Felton, the forever Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter saga. The film also features Wes Studi and Abigail Breslin. The AI-generated version of Val Kilmer will appear in a significant portion of the finished film, according to the production team.
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The project uses both images of a younger Kilmer, many of them provided directly by his family, and footage filmed during his final years to portray the character Father Fintan at different stages of life. The audio also draws on Kilmer’s voice, which in recent years had been compromised by a tracheal procedure related to his cancer treatment.
There is one detail that makes this choice even more symbolic. The character in the film also suffers from tuberculosis, a condition that, according to producer John Voorhees, the director’s brother, mirrored Kilmer’s real-life condition as he fought throat cancer. This created a kind of bridge between fiction and reality, where the actor’s weakened voice fit organically into the character’s narrative. It was not a forced gimmick. It was a coincidence the team knew how to turn into a storytelling tool.
An Indie Production That Survived Just About Everything
As Deep as the Grave is an independent production that had to survive a long list of obstacles over the course of six years. Shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic stretched the filming schedule far beyond what was originally planned. At one point, the team actually cut scenes involving Father Fintan due to budget constraints and time limitations.
But when the people behind the film reviewed the footage they had, they realized those scenes were essential. Without Father Fintan, the story felt incomplete. Director Coerte Voorhees explained that normally the solution would be to simply recast the role with another actor. He deeply values working with his actors and points out that the film already features brilliant performances throughout. But the reality was tough — there was no budget to go back and reshoot. This was not a big-studio production with unlimited resources.
It was in that scenario that the team started exploring technological alternatives and realized that generative artificial intelligence had advanced enough to make what was once impossible actually feasible. The decision was not made lightly. Kilmer’s family kept emphasizing how important the project was and reaffirming that the actor truly wanted to be part of this film. According to Voorhees, it was precisely that ongoing family support that gave him the confidence to move forward with the AI approach, even knowing some people might see the decision as controversial.
A Voice That Disease Could Not Erase
Throat cancer took a lot from Val Kilmer over the years. His voice, which for decades was one of his most recognizable traits, was progressively damaged by the disease and its treatments. But before the damage became irreversible, the artificial intelligence company Sonantic worked with Kilmer to digitally clone his voice using old recordings and extensive reference material.
That process was publicly documented and gained worldwide visibility when Kilmer used the AI-generated voice to reprise his role as Tom Iceman Kazansky in the 2022 film Top Gun: Maverick. At the time, the actor himself expressed gratitude for the technology. He said that as human beings, the ability to communicate is at the center of existence, and that the side effects of throat cancer had made it difficult for others to understand him. The chance to narrate his own story with a voice that sounded authentic and familiar was, in his words, an incredibly special gift.
In As Deep as the Grave, that same logic was applied on an even deeper level. The production not only used AI voice generation to create Father Fintan’s dialogue but also visually reconstructed Kilmer’s presence in specific scenes, integrating digitally generated imagery with archival footage and photographs provided by the family. The process involved close collaboration with the actor’s children, who were part of every step to make sure the representation stayed true to their father’s essence.
What makes this case even more unique is the fact that Val Kilmer knew about the project and had expressed his desire to be part of it. He wanted to make this film. Father Fintan was not just another character on a list — it was a role that spoke directly to his own spirituality, his connection to Native cultures, and his worldview. When the disease made his physical participation impossible, the family and the director understood that honoring that wish was the most respectful way to move forward. 🎙️
What AI Actually Did in This Project
From a technical standpoint, what happened in As Deep as the Grave goes well beyond simply copying a voice. AI-powered voice generation today runs on models trained with large volumes of audio data, capable of capturing not just a person’s vocal tone but also their speech rhythm, their characteristic pauses, the way they breathe between words, and even specific emotional nuances. In Kilmer’s case, the training material available was extensive. Decades of films, interviews, public readings, and various recordings made it possible to build a highly detailed model of how his voice sounded and behaved across different dramatic contexts.
The visual reconstruction was the most delicate step in the entire process. Unlike voice work, which benefits from rich databases, recreating an actor’s face and movements in scenes they never filmed demands a level of precision the industry is still refining. The film’s team used a combination of advanced compositing techniques and AI-driven facial animation to visually integrate Kilmer into the scenes. Every detail went through manual reviews by visual effects artists, which means AI did not work alone. It was a tool within a human-supervised creative process.
This point matters for understanding that the technology did not make artistic decisions on its own. It executed choices made by real people who held responsibility for the final result. AI provided technical capability, but creative direction stayed in human hands. 💡
What Kilmer’s Family Said About All of This
Mercedes Kilmer, the actor’s daughter, issued an official statement supporting the film. She highlighted that her father was a deeply spiritual man and that he connected with a story of discovery and enlightenment set in the American Southwest, a region where he had chosen to live, in New Mexico.
Mercedes also emphasized her father’s view of technology. According to her, Kilmer always looked at emerging technologies with optimism, seeing them as tools to expand the possibilities of storytelling. That spirit, she said, is something everyone is honoring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part.
The family’s support was not limited to public statements. They provided images, archival material, and ongoing guidance throughout the entire digital reconstruction process. The producers also followed SAG-AFTRA guild guidelines and financially compensated Kilmer’s family for his participation in the film. That transparency throughout the process is one of the factors the production highlights when defending the ethical legitimacy of the project.
Ethics, Debate, and the Future of Cinema with AI
The ethical discussion around using artificial intelligence to recreate deceased actors or those unable to work is not new, but As Deep as the Grave brings an element that sets this case apart from most previous debates: consent. Val Kilmer knew about the project, wanted to participate, and throughout his life demonstrated openness to the use of AI with his own voice and image. That does not eliminate every ethical question, but it substantially changes the nature of the conversation.
The central question is no longer whether it is right or wrong to use someone’s likeness without permission. It becomes how to ensure a person’s legacy is preserved with fidelity and respect when they themselves expressed that wish while alive. The Voorhees brothers acknowledge that the decision may attract criticism, but they hope the film will demonstrate how AI can be used ethically within the creative process.
Behind the scenes of the film industry, the debate over regulating the use of AI with actors has been underway for some time now. SAG-AFTRA has been negotiating specific clauses on the topic with studios and production companies. The core concern is that technology could be used to replace living workers, reduce pay, or create digital likenesses without clear consent. Because the Kilmer case was handled with family involvement and within a project the actor himself had approved, it tends to be cited as an example of responsible conduct — even though the discussions about what exactly that means remain very much open.
For independent cinema specifically, the long-term impact could be even more transformative. Directors and screenwriters working outside the big studio structures now have access to tools that were once exclusive to multimillion-dollar productions. That democratizes certain creative possibilities, but it also demands a much higher level of responsibility from those who use them, since there are no robust legal departments or communications teams to manage a crisis if something goes wrong.
As Deep as the Grave goes beyond being just a movie. It works as a living case study of how artificial intelligence can be integrated into the filmmaking process in a way that honors both the art and the people involved in it. 🎥
Val Kilmer left this world in 2025, but his final performance is still being built with the same technology he embraced while he was alive. And that alone says a lot about how far artificial intelligence can take us when it is used with intention, care, and above all, respect for those who came before.
