AI replica of Val Kilmer allows late actor to return to the screen for new film

The American star's estate collaborated with the film-makers of As Deep As The Grave to create his digital likeness. Read more at straitstimes.com.

LOS ANGELES - The late American film star Val Kilmer could soon be “acting” on the big screen again after allowing a director to use AI tools to produce his photorealistic likeness for an upcoming film, media reports said on March 18.

American film-maker Coerte Voorhees had tapped the actor, who died of pneumonia at age 65 in 2025 after years of battling throat cancer, for As Deep As The Grave, about the pioneering archaeologist Ann Morris, a co-discoverer of the Anasazi civilisation.

Kilmer was to play a Catholic priest named Fintan.

“He was the actor I wanted to play this role,” Voorhees told industry magazine Variety. “It drew on his Native American heritage and his ties to and love of the Southwest.”

He said Kilmer signed on to the project but later became too ill to begin filming.

“I was looking at a call sheet the other day, and we had him ready to shoot,” Voorhees said. “He was just going through a really, really tough time medically, and he couldn’t do it.”