Famous Actor Val Kilmer Resurrected Via AI For New Film Role

Val Kilmer, who passed away in 2025, is set to appear in an upcoming film through an AI-generated performance created with the blessing of his family.

Over a decades-long career, Kilmer delivered iconic performances in films such as Top Gun, The Doors, Tombstone, Heat, and Batman Forever. He died at age 65 on April 1, 2025, following a long battle with throat cancer.

In one of his final on-screen appearances, Kilmer reprised his role as Iceman in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick. For that film, his voice was digitally enhanced to improve clarity after chemotherapy, tracheotomies, and other medical procedures had reduced it to a rasp.

Five years before his death, Kilmer had been cast as Father Fintan in As Deep as the Grave, written and directed by Coerte Voorhees. However, he “was too sick to ever make it to set,” according to Variety. His role in the film will now be realized entirely through “state-of-the-art generative AI.”

A first look at the AI-generated version of Kilmer has already been shared by the filmmakers with Variety.

“He was the actor I wanted to play this role,” said Voorhees. “It was very much designed around him. It drew on his Native American heritage and his ties to and love of the Southwest.”

Voorhees explained that Kilmer had been eager to participate in the project but was ultimately unable to do so due to his health.

“He was just going through a really, really tough time medically, and he couldn’t do it,” Voorhees said. With the support of Kilmer’s children, Mercedes Kilmer and Jack Kilmer, he felt comfortable moving forward with the use of AI.

“His family kept saying how important they thought the movie was and that Val really wanted to be a part of this,” Voorhees told Variety. “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 that some people might call it controversial, this is what Val wanted.”

Producer John Voorhees, the director’s brother, noted a poignant parallel between Kilmer’s real-life condition and the character he portrays.

Kilmer’s character, based on a true story, “suffers from tuberculosis,” he said. “This historical character mirrored Val’s actual condition when he was suffering from throat cancer. And so when it comes to the voice this is a really unique opportunity for the character to reflect the condition that the actor was actually suffering from, thus creating a kind of a bridge.”

According to Variety, the filmmakers used “younger images of Kilmer, many of them provided by his family, and footage from his final years to show his character in various stages of his life,” along with recordings of his voice.

Before his death, Kilmer had worked with AI company Sonantic to create voice recordings. At the time, he said he was “grateful” for the opportunity, calling it “an incredibly special gift” to be able to “narrate my story, in a voice that feels authentic and familiar.”

The Voorhees brothers acknowledged the ongoing debate surrounding AI in filmmaking, including concerns about job loss and the misuse of actors’ likenesses without consent. However, they expressed hope that their project could serve as a model for ethical AI use, noting that they obtained permission, compensated Kilmer’s estate, and adhered to SAG guidelines.

Mercedes Kilmer also voiced the family’s support for As Deep as the Grave, describing her father as “a deeply spiritual man” who was drawn to the film because he saw it as a “story of discovery and enlightenment.”

“He always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling,” she said. “This spirit is something that we are all honoring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part.”

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