Legendary Actor Val Kilmer To Star In Movie After His Death

Legendary Hollywood star Val Kilmer died in 2025 — but he’s also appearing in a brand new film despite never having shot a single scene.

Director Coerte Voorhees cast Kilmer as Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist, in “As Deep as the Grave” five years before he passed, according to Variety. The actor was unable to shoot scenes as he was too sick with throat cancer to appear on-set.

Utilizing a combination of images showing Kilmer — many coming from his relatives — and video from his last years, his character was brought to life. The audio also features Kilmer’s voice, damaged by a tracheal procedure in his later years.

“He was the actor I wanted to play this role,” Voorhees said, according to Variety.

HOLLYWOOD – OCTOBER 18: Actor Val Kilmer arrives at the Warner Bros. premiere of “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” held at the Grauman?s Chinese Theater on October 18, 2005 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

“It was very much designed around him. It drew on his Native American heritage and his ties to and love of the Southwest. 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.”

Kilmer’s daughter Mercedes and the late actor’s estate gave the nod for Voorhees to use state-of-the-art generative AI to bring Kilmer to life on the big screen, according to Variety. The director also said Kilmer’s son Jack gave his support to the decision.

“His family kept saying how important they thought the movie was and that Val really wanted to be a part of this,” Voorhees told Variety.

“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, okay let’s do this. Despite the fact some people might call it controversial, this is what Val wanted.”

TORONTO, ON – SEPTEMBER 12: Actor Val Kilmer speaks onstage at the “Twixt” press conference during the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival at TIFF Bell Lightbox on September 12, 2011 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

“The character in the film also suffers from tuberculosis,” John Vorhees, the film’s producer and brother to the director, said.

“Again, this historical character mirrored Val’s actual condition when he was suffering from throat cancer. 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.”

The film is an indie production that suffered tremendously during COVID lockdowns that stretched production to a span of six years.

“Normally we would just recast an actor. I’m all about working with our actors, and we have brilliant performances all throughout this movie. But we can’t roll camera again. We don’t have the budget. We’re not a big studio film. So we had to think of innovative ways to do it. And we realized the technology is there for us,” Coerte Voorhees told Variety.

SANTA MONICA, CA – SEPTEMBER 25: Actor Val Kilmer arrives at the 23rd Annual Simply Shakespeare Benefit reading of “The Two Gentleman of Verona” at The Broad Stage on September 25, 2013 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Voorhees and the producer of the film argued their use of AI was ethical, asserting that the production was rooted in the Screen Actors Guild’s guidelines and Kilmer’s estate was paid for his appearance, according to Variety.

Speaking of Kilmer, Mercedes said her father “always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling.” (RELATED: Fake Blood Seemingly Drenches Moviegoers In Wild Screening Of ‘Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come’)

“This spirit is something that we are all honoring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part,” she said, according to Variety.