LAS VEGAS — Filmmakers behind As Deep as the Grave unveiled a first look Wednesday at a recreated Val Kilmer, bringing an artificial intelligence-rendered version of the late actor into a prominent role at CinemaCon. The trailer showed Kilmer as Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist, and ended with the line: “Don’t fear the dead and don’t fear me.”
The moment mattered because Kilmer died last year at 65 of pneumonia, and the film had already become a lightning rod when the use of generative AI was announced last month. Coerte Voorhees and his brother John addressed the decision on a panel Wednesday, with John Voorhees saying the approach followed Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists guidelines built around consent, compensation and collaboration.
The estate, including Kilmer’s daughter Mercedes, gave permission for the digital replication, was paid for it and provided archival footage to help shape the result. The filmmakers also said they worked with Kilmer’s children and the actors union, while comparing the AI-rendered work to any actor portraying a historical figure on screen. Their case is built on one simple fact: Kilmer had signed on to As Deep as the Grave years ago, and much of the film was structured around Father Fintan before he had to pull out at the last minute.
The project is an indie historical drama based on archaeologists Ann and Earl Morris, but the technology puts it in a larger conversation about performance after death — one Kilmer had already entered while alive. After losing his natural speaking voice following a throat cancer diagnosis and two tracheotomies, he turned to an AI software company to digitally recreate it, and that altered voice helped his final screen performance in Top Gun: Maverick. The new film extends that experiment beyond voice into a full screen presence.
That is the real answer to the question raised by the trailer and the panel: the filmmakers are not presenting a substitute for Kilmer so much as a sanctioned reconstruction of a role he had already agreed to play, using his estate’s permission, archival material and union-backed rules. Whether audiences accept that distinction will decide how far this kind of revival can go, but for now the first test has been made public in Las Vegas.