Val Kilmer<\/a> has been digitally recreated using generative AI for the forthcoming film As Deep as the Grave.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Val Kilmer has been digitally recreated using generative AI for the forthcoming film As Deep as the Grave<\/p>\n
Nearly a year after the Top Gun star\u2019s death, the move has been described as \u201ccontroversial\u201d by the movie\u2019s director Coerte Voorhees, who confirmed he used AI to complete Val\u2019s role as Father Fintan after the actor was unable to film his scenes during production in 2020 due to health issues. <\/p>\n
Val died in April, 2025, aged 65 from pneumonia following long-term health struggles stemming from a 2014 throat cancer diagnosis and related treatments including a tracheotomy that left him using a voice box.<\/p>\n
He is said to have been ready to shoot As Deep as the Grave before his condition prevented him from taking part. <\/p>\n
But with permission from the actor\u2019s estate and family, Coerte used existing photos, footage and audio recordings to reconstruct the performance. <\/p>\n
\nThe film, which also stars Abigail Lawrie and Tim Felton, is based on a true story about archaeologists Ann and Earl Morris and their work tracing the history of the Navajo.<\/p>\n
\nCoerte was quoted by Page Six saying about Val: \u201cHe was the actor I wanted to play this role. It was very much designed around him.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHis family kept saying how important they thought the movie was and that Val really wanted to be a part of this.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cHe really thought it was an important story that he wanted his name on.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt was that support that gave me the confidence to say, okay, let\u2019s do this. Despite the fact some people might call it controversial, this is what Val wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nVal\u2019s daughter Mercedes Kilmer, 34, said about what Val would have thought of the move: \u201cHe always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThis spirit is something that we are all honouring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nCoerte added: \u201cNormally we would just recast an actor.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cBut we can\u2019t roll camera again. We don\u2019t have the budget. We\u2019re not a big studio film. So we had to think of innovative ways to do it. And we realised the technology is there for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe use of AI to recreate Val follows earlier work in 2021, when the actor partnered with Sonantic to generate a synthetic voice after losing his natural speaking voice. <\/p>\n
\nThat technology was used for his appearance alongside Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick, which saw Val reprising his role as Tom \u2018Iceman\u2019\u00a0Kazansky.<\/p>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"18 March 2026 Val Kilmer has been digitally recreated using generative AI for the forthcoming film As Deep as the Grave. Val Kilmer has been digitally recreated using generative AI for the forthcoming film As Deep as the Grave Nearly a year after the Top Gun star\u2019s death, the move has been described as \u201ccontroversial\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14294,14296,14292,14302,14297,11061,14301,14298,14293,14300,14295,721,7287,14299,14303],"class_list":{"0":"post-229406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-abigail-lawrie","9":"tag-ann-morris","10":"tag-coerte-voorhees","11":"tag-coerte-voorhees-director","12":"tag-earl-morris","13":"tag-jack-kilmer","14":"tag-jack-kilmer-actor","15":"tag-joanne-whalley","16":"tag-mercedes-kilmer","17":"tag-mercedes-kilmer-interview","18":"tag-tim-felton","19":"tag-tom-cruise","20":"tag-val-kilmer","21":"tag-val-kilmer-ai","22":"tag-val-kilmer-top-gun"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}