Five years before his death in 2025, Val Kilmer had committed to a role that he was never able to act.
He was set to play Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist, in Coerte Voorhees’ historical drama As Deep as the Grave.
The part was written specifically for him, shaped by his connection to the American Southwest and his own Native heritage.
But as production approached, Kilmer’s ongoing battle with throat cancer made it impossible for him to step in front of the camera.
‘He was the actor I wanted to play this role,’ Voorhees now tells Variety. ‘It was very much designed around him.’
The director recalls preparing to shoot, call sheets in place: ‘He was just going through a really, really tough time medically, and he couldn’t do it.’
Though Kilmer never filmed a scene, he appears in the finished film through the use of generative AI, a decision made in collaboration with his family.
According to Voorhees, both Kilmer’s daughter, Mercedes, and his son, Jack, supported the idea, emphasising how much the actor had cared about the project.
‘His family kept saying how important they thought the movie was and that Val really wanted to be a part of this,’ Voorhees explains. ‘Despite the fact some people might call it controversial, this is what Val wanted.’
The film, previously titled Canyon of the Dead, tells the true story of archaeologists Ann and Earl Morris and their work in Arizona’s Canyon de Chelly, tracing the history of the Navajo people.
Abigail Lawrie and Tom Felton lead the cast, alongside Wes Studi and Abigail Breslin.
Within that ensemble, Father Fintan emerges as a key character, portrayed through a digital reconstruction of Kilmer that draws on both archival images and footage from his later years.
Kilmer’s voice, which was significantly altered after a tracheal procedure, has also been integrated into the role as well.
‘The character in the film also suffers from tuberculosis,’ Vorhees says. ‘This historical character mirrored Val’s actual condition… creating a kind of a bridge.’
As Deep as the Grave has taken six years to complete, its production stretched and stalled by the Covid pandemic and the realities of independent filmmaking.
At one stage, scenes involving Father Fintan were cut altogether due to budget constraints. But when the filmmakers reviewed the footage, the absence was unmistakable, according to them.
‘We really figured out that this is a major missing element,’ Coerte Voorhees says. ‘Normally we would just recast an actor… but we can’t roll camera again. We don’t have the budget. So we had to think of innovative ways to do it.’
That ‘innovation’ sits at the centre of an ongoing cultural argument, as AI is something almost everyone has a strong opinion on right now.
The use of AI in film remains deeply contentious, raising concerns about consent, creative labour, and the potential erosion of human performance.
The Voorhees brothers are acutely aware of the scrutiny their decision invites, but insist their approach has been grounded in collaboration and care. They emphasised that they worked within union guidelines and ensured Kilmer’s estate was compensated adequately for the use of his digital likeness.
Mercedes Kilmer described her father as ‘a deeply spiritual man’ who connected with the film’s themes of discovery and enlightenment, in a statement about the family’s decision to allow Kilmer to be ‘resurrected’ with artifical intelligence.
She continued: ‘He always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling.’
It is not the first time Kilmer’s legacy has intersected with artificial intelligence.
When he reprised his role as Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick, AI was used to recreate his voice, allowing him to perform despite the physical limitations imposed by his illness.
At the time, he spoke openly about what that meant. ‘The chance to narrate my story, in a voice that feels authentic and familiar, is an incredibly special gift,’ he said.
Still, the response to As Deep as the Grave suggests that such technology remains far from universally accepted.
Online reactions have ranged from outright hostility to cautious enthusiasm.
‘A textbook example of how bad ai is,’ one user wrote on X in reaction to the news. Another dismissed it as ‘evil stuff’, while others criticised the preview of Kilmer’s digital likeness as ‘lifeless’.
Others made it clear they are just excited to see more of Kilmer onscreen, regardless of how that opportunity came about.
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