As Deep as the Grave: Val Kilmer Rises Again on Screen with AI

The trailer for As Deep as the Grave brings Val Kilmer back to the screen with AI: family consent, a central role, and a new case for Hollywood.

The trailer shown at CinemaCon puts Val Kilmer back at the center of the screen a year after his death, but it does so through a digital replica created for As Deep as the Grave. In the film he plays Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and spiritual figure connected to Native American culture, within a story set in the 1920s Southwest and inspired by archaeologists Ann and Earl Morris.

The decisive point is this: Kilmer had actually been chosen for the role, but he was unable to film it because of his health condition. At that point, Coerte Voorhees decided to complete the part using AI, with the approval of his daughter Mercedes Kilmer and the actor’s estate.

How they put Val Kilmer back into the film

According to reports that emerged between March and April, Kilmer’s character occupies a very large portion of the film, with more than an hour of total screen presence, so this is certainly not an ornamental cameo. The trailer shows him at different ages: in one scene he appears almost like a ghostly presence, in another like a much younger man.

The production used archive materials provided by the family, generative AI tools for the face, and a reconstructed voice developed with the contribution of Sonantic, a company Kilmer had already worked with after the loss of his voice caused by throat cancer.

Voorhees says the role had been conceived around the actor’s sensibility, his relationship with the Southwest, and his cultural identity. Mercedes Kilmer defended the operation by saying that her father saw emerging technologies as a way to expand the possibilities of storytelling.

Why this trailer opens a new front in Hollywood

The problem is now technical, strategic, political, union-related, and industrial.

As Deep as the Grave arrives while Hollywood is still arguing over the boundary between consent, replacement, and exploitation. SAG-AFTRA has stressed, precisely in the Kilmer case, that using the digital replica of a deceased performer requires the consent of the estate and compliance with current contracts and state laws.

The producers say they acted within those rules and compensated the estate, but the hot issue remains untouched: once the door has been opened, who decides where to stop? The controversy over Tilly Norwood, a synthetic actress harshly attacked by the union, had already shown the industry’s most concrete fear: that digital technology will not only be used to complete an impossible role, but will become an industrial shortcut to reduce bodies, time, and wages.

That is why the trailer for As Deep as the Grave immediately divides opinion. For some, it is an authorized tribute. For others, it is the perfect test of a future Hollywood keeps saying it wants to regulate, while already putting it on display.