Top Gun and Batman Forever actor Val Kilmer died in April 2025. But that won’t stop Hollywood. An AI-generated digital version of Kilmer will star in an upcoming movie that he was originally set to be in before he passed away.
On March 18, as first revealed by Variety, Kilmer is being digitally resurrected through the power of generative AI technology to play Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist in the upcoming fact-based flick As Deep as the Grave. The film’s director told the outlet that he didn’t want to recast Kilmer, despite the actor’s death.
“He was the actor I wanted to play this role,” said director Coerte Voorhees. “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 the director decided to use “state-of-the-art” generative AI tech to recreate Kilmer for his film despite the actor never stepping foot on set to film a single scene and being dead for nearly a year now. Kilmer’s children and estate are all on board, according to Voorhees.
“His family kept saying how important they thought the movie was and that Val really wanted to be a part of this,” said Voorhees. “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.’”
The director admits that reviving a dead actor like this using generative AI is going to be “controversial” but claims that “this is what Val wanted.”
“Normally, we would just recast an actor,” explained the director. “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.”
Kilmer’s estate approves of using AI to recreate the actor
Kilmer’s daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, fully supports the film using AI to bring her deceased father back to life. Voorhees tells Variety that Kilmer’s son Jack is also “supportive.” Voorhees says the production followed SAG guidelines on AI tech and that Kilmer’s estate was properly compensated for his appearance in the film.
“He always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling,” said Mercedes Kilmer. “This spirit is something that we are all honoring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part.”
The AI-generated version of Kilmer will appear in “a significant part” of As Deep as the Grave. The AI actor was built using younger images of Kilmer provided to the production by his family as well as footage of the actor during his final years. The idea is to show the character through various stages of his life. AI Kilmer will feature a voice built from recordings of the late actor in his final years after his voice was damaged by a tracheal operation. The director says this was all part of the plan when they cast Kilmer as Father Fintan, a real person who suffered from tuberculosis and also had a damaged voice.
In 2022, Kilmer worked with Sonantic to help create an AI-powered speaking voice for himself when he reprised his role as Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick.
“As human beings, the ability to communicate is the core of our existence, and the side effects from throat cancer have made it difficult for others to understand me,” Kilmer said at the time. “The chance to narrate my story, in a voice that feels authentic and familiar, is an incredibly special gift.”
