The filmmakers behind As Deep as the Grave, the indie film that is using an artificial intelligence-rendered version of Val Kilmer in a prominent role, debuted a first look at the recreated actor Wednesday at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.
“Don’t fear the dead and don’t fear me,” Kilmer’s character, Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Indigenous spiritualist, says at the end of the trailer.
The actor died last year at 65 of pneumonia. The use of generative AI to recreate Kilmer for the historical drama, based on archaeologists Ann and Earl Morris, became a hot-button issue when the filmmakers announced it last month. The trailer shows Kilmer’s character at various ages.
Writer-director Coerte Voorhees, along with his brother John, spoke on a panel Wednesday about the controversial decision to use the technology to create a performance from a deceased actor. They explained why they believe they’ve handled it ethically by working with Kilmer’s children and the actors’ union. Coerte Voorhees stopped short, however, of calling it a Val Kilmer performance.
“Val Kilmer influenced this performance,” Coerte Voorhees said.
Producer John Voorhees said the use of AI actors based on real people is risky territory, but emphasized that the filmmakers followed guidelines from the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union, which he boiled down to “consent, compensation and collaboration.”
That process was decided on after a lengthy fight between studios and SAG-AFTRA, which largely contributed to the 2023 industry strike that ground Hollywood to a halt. In resolving that strike, the union and studios agreed on a contract that decided on how and when AI performers could be used.
One of those categories, synthetic performers, has drawn much of the condemnation. Those AI “actors” are ones not specifically based on any one real person. Creations like Tilly Norwood by production company Particle6 are intended to be entirely original, and have raised concerns about tech companies removing the need for human actors altogether.
So far, the Norwood creation has only been featured in a single production: the comedy sketch AI Commissioner. The Guardian called the skit “relentlessly unfunny,” while actor Natasha Lyonne dubbed the synthetic creation Norwood a “fear tactic” and “distraction” rather than the future of the industry. But it is this sort of tool that filmmakers like Mercy director Timur Bekmambetov — who created the “Screenlife” software behind screen-based films such as 2018’s Searching and 2025’s War of the Worlds — plans to spread throughout all of Hollywood.
While Bekmambetov is also working to ensure as many projects as possible have access to some element of AI, other creators — including Knives Out director Rian Johnson — have said its incursion into the movie-making business is “making everything worse in every single way.”
European AI production company Particle6 says their AI-creation Tilly Norwood has generated a lot of interest, but Hollywood actors including Emily Blunt, Melissa Barrera and Whoopi Goldberg as well as the SAG-AFTRA union have come out against the AI character.
Outside of fully artificial performers, the other categories deal with recreations of real people. For example, there are employment-based digital replicas, created for an actor already working on a project to add to or enhance a performance. And there is the broader concept of digital alteration, which usually requires informed consent from the performer, but with limited exceptions — including altering a performer’s appearance or accent — that allow producers to “fix it in post.”
Computer technology aiding or adjusting an actors’ work predates the AI revolution. As far back as 2019, Gemini Man, Captain Marvel, It Chapter Two and The Irishman were attacked for employing quickly advancing “digital de-aging technology” to alter their stars’ faces.
At the time, it was criticized for both its unrealistic, uncanny end results and for theoretically pushing aside up-and-coming actors who could have been hired instead of established, aging stars. But similar digital doctoring came back into the spotlight during the 2025 Oscar race, when Red Shark News revealed that The Brutalist creators used AI to enhance Adrien Brody’s Hungarian accent.
Given that Brody was nominated for — and eventually won — best actor for that performance, the Academy was reported to be considering making disclosure of AI assistance mandatory prior to their voting on nominees.
Digital replicas
Then there are “independently created digital replicas,” the category most relevant to Kilmer’s “appearance” in As Deep as the Grave. That category constitutes productions that create the digital likeness of a specific performer who is not otherwise directly involved in the project.
The spectre of reanimated celebrities also surfaced in 2019, when production company Magic City Films said it had obtained the rights to digitally recreate James Dean for an entirely new film. Though that movie never ended up being made, the cat was seemingly out of the bag.
As the technology became more widespread, more stars licensed their likenesses for use. Late last year, both Michael Caine and Matthew McConaughey allowed AI company ElevenLabs to use their voices in a marketplace that allows advertisers to use celebrity voices to sell products or read text.
Likewise, Kilmer’s estate gave permission for his digital replication. The estate is being compensated and provided archival footage to help the process.
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Kilmer also used AI while he was alive. After he lost his natural speaking voice following a throat cancer diagnosis and two tracheotomies, he turned to an AI software company to digitally recreate it. Kilmer’s voice was also digitally altered for his final screen performance in Top Gun: Maverick.
Kilmer had signed on to As Deep as the Grave years ago. When he pulled out due to health issues, the creators decided to continue shooting without the character instead of recasting the role.
They said they later realized the story really did need Father Fintan, and decided to raise the idea with Kilmer’s children.
“We were so glad they were so excited and so supportive of the idea,” Voorhees said. “We didn’t want to do it unless everybody thought this was going to work properly.”
SAG-AFTRA, which had previously said regulating and limiting AI use was “a mandatory subject of bargaining” in ending their 2023 strike, did include language in its contract about when the technology could be used.
In its philosophy statement around the use of AI, SAG-AFTRA says requiring AI performers to be paid on scale with human performers would help ensure that “the choice to use a human over AI [would be] the smartest financial choice.”
But much of the contract relies on language saying that studios and performers must both “acknowledge the importance of human performance in motion pictures” and should act in “good faith” toward one another. Some entertainment lawyers believe that is a vague enforcement standard, one that is difficult to enforce or even verify.
Voorhees said Kilmer appears onscreen in the movie for one hour and 17 minutes. The final runtime was not revealed, though the creators stated it is significantly longer than that. The filmmakers plan to release it later this year.
