One year after he passed away, Hollywood icon Val Kilmer is headlining a new film.
Kilmer, 65, who died in 2025 from pneumonia after suffering throat cancer, will star in the upcoming film As Deep as the Grave without ever having stepped on its set.
“He was the actor I wanted to play this role. It was very much designed around him,” the film’s writer and director Coerte Voorhees told Variety on Wednesday. “I was looking at a call sheet the other day, and we had him ready to shoot. He was just going through a really, really tough time medically, and he couldn’t do it.”
For the film, the iconic Top Gun actor will be completely digitally created using “state-of-the-art generative AI,” according to Variety’s report.
The film is backed by Kilmer’s estate and daughter, Mercedes, who co-produced a documentary of the famed actor’s life in 2021. Vorhees also said he has the support of Kilmer’s son, Jack, who co-produced the documentary.
Kilmer accepted his last role in 2020, playing Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist who suffers from tuberculosis. Vorhees said he built the role around the Heat actor, using his damaged voice from a tracheostomy procedure due to his throat cancer.
“This historical character mirrored Val’s actual condition when he was suffering from throat cancer,” John Voorhees, the film’s producer, added. “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.”
To recreate Kilmer’s likeness and voice for “a significant part” of the film, Voorhees used younger images of the actor provided by his family, along with footage from his final years, for when his character ages. Audio for Kilmer’s voice was also taken from the footage.
“His family kept saying how important they thought the movie was and that Val really wanted to be a part of this,” the director said. “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, ‘OK, let’s do this.’ Despite the fact some people might call it controversial, this is what Val wanted.”
Mercedes Kilmer expressed her support in a statement to Variety.
“He always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling,” Mercedes said, noting her father’s resonance with a story set in the American Southwest, where he lived. “This spirit is something that we are all honoring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part.”
Kilmer embraced AI even in his own lifetime, partnering with Sonantic to power his voice for his reprised role as Tom “Iceman” Kazansky in Top Gun: Maverick in 2022.
“As human beings, the ability to communicate is the core of our existence, and the side effects from throat cancer have made it difficult for others to understand me,” Kilmer said at the time. “The chance to narrate my story, in a voice that feels authentic and familiar, is an incredibly special gift.”
The resurrected Kilmer will star alongside Harry Potter alum Tom Felton as well as Abigail Lawrie from Tin Star. The film has not yet set a release date.
