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

LOS ANGELES – The late American film star Val Kilmer could soon be “acting” on the big screen again after allowing a director to use artificial intelligence (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.”

He added that Kilmer’s family had provided video images of Kilmer, who was known for keeping a vast archive of footage from various moments of his life, that would be used to build the AI actor who would appear in a large portion of the film. The film is in post-production and has a planned release in 2026.

The project will likely get a wary welcome from many in Hollywood, where actors, writers and others are worried that AI could replace an array of jobs.

AI was already used with Kilmer so he could again play one of his most iconic roles, the cocky pilot Iceman, in Top Gun: Maverick, the 2022 sequel to the era-defining 1986 hit Top Gun.

Kilmer, who starred in big-budget successes and indie films throughout his career, was one of the late actors praised during the In Memoriam segment of the Oscars ceremony on March 15. AFP