After decades of trying to get their 1920s historical drama “As Deep as the Grave” off the ground, Coerte and John Voorhees thought they’d finally hit the jackpot: Val Kilmer was on board to star. Then everything changed.
After years of starts and stops due to COVID, Coerte, who is the movie’s director, and John, who is producing, got terrible news: Kilmer, who was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, was now too sick to participate. He died in 2025.
At first, the brothers pressed on, removing Kilmer’s role as a Catholic priest from the film. But soon, advancements in artificial intelligence had rapidly improved, and they had another idea. With the approval of Kilmer’s two children, Mercedes and Jack, Kilmer was resurrected to deliver an AI-generated performance.
Press got their first glimpse of AI Kilmer on Wednesday when the Voorhees debuted the movie’s trailer at CinemaCon, the movie theater convention held yearly in Las Vegas.
The “As Deep as the Grave” trailer features two versions of Kilmer: one that looks close to his appearance when he died at 65, and another that depicts him in his 30s in a flashback scene.
First Line Films
The most astonishing moments of the trailer feature the young Kilmer. Coerte told Business Insider that the trailer’s final shot, which is a closeup of Kilmer speaking to a child, took hours of digging through archival footage to feed to the AI. Once the sourcing was done, the actual AI generation for that shot only took 7 minutes.
“You have to make sure the authenticity is coming across, down to the mole on the side of his cheek,” Coerte said of the sourcing process. “We just had to be such students of Val Kilmer.”
Once the Voorhees saw what AI could do, they didn’t just bring Kilmer back into the movie; they beefed up his role. The filmmakers said Kilmer has over an hour of screen time in the movie.
This is not the first time Kilmer and his estate have dabbled in AI. When the star was alive, he approved the use of AI technology to recreate his voice for his role in “Top Gun: Maverick.”
The Voorhees praised Kilmer’s children for being thoughtful collaborators and keepers of their father’s estate.
“Mercedes and Jack have as much creative authority when we give them a suggestion,” John said. “It’s consent, it’s compensation, it’s collaboration. You have to do that. What you see on the screen is what the family wants.”
The filmmakers said they’re grateful that AI technology has evolved enough to help make “As Deep as the Grave” a nuanced tribute to the actor.
“Fortunately, AI has been the biggest ally in this, because it’s focused on the emotional experience now,” Coerte said.
“As Deep as the Grave” is currently seeking distribution.
