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Val Kilmer will be portrayed by generative AI in the upcoming movie As Deep as the Grave, which will release after his death in 2025.
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Val Kilmer will appear on movie screens one final time.
Less than one year after his death, the Top Gun alum’s loved ones shared their reaction to his posthumous role in the upcoming film As Deep as the Grave. Though Val had signed onto the movie five years before his death, he was too ill amid his battle with cancer to ever make it to set.
As for the decision made by the film’s team, including writer and director Coerte Voorhees, to use generative artificial intelligence (AI) to include Val in the movie, his daughter Mercedes Kilmer confirmed her family’s support to Variety.
The role sees Val—who said he had Cherokee ancestry—as Catholic priest and native American spiritualist Father Fintan, a story of “discovery and enlightenment” that Mercedes said resonated with her father, who she described as “a deeply spiritual man.”
“He always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling,” Mercedes—one of Val’s two children with ex-wife Joanne Whalley—added. “This spirit is something that we are all honoring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part.”
As for why Coerte never considered casting a new actor in Val’s place, the director said he envisioned the Heat actor as Father Fintan from the very beginning.
“He was the actor I wanted to play this role,” Coerte explained. “It was very much designed around him. He was just going through a really, really tough time medically, and he couldn’t do it.”
Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
“His family kept saying how important they thought the movie was and that Val really wanted to be a part of this,” he continued. “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.”
And indeed, while the use of generative AI has become a hot-button topic in Hollywood—as AI “actress” Tilly Norwood proved earlier this year—Val will not be the first actor to appear in a posthumous role.
Following her death in 2016, Carrie Fisher’s final scenes in 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker not through generative AI, but instead a combination of unused archival footage from previous installments and visual effects artists mapping her live-action face onto a digital character.
Rob Kim/Getty Images
As for Val, the actor expressed his support for AI technology while he was still alive when he partnered with Sonantic to recreate his speaking voice for his role in Top Gun: Maverick.
“As human beings, the ability to communicate is the core of our existence,” he said in a 2021 statement, "and the side effects from throat cancer have made it difficult for others to understand m. The chance to narrate my story, in a voice that feels authentic and familiar, is an incredibly special gift.”
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