The filmmakers behind "As Deep as the Grave" debuted a trailer at CinemaCon showing AI technology used to construct Val Kilmer's full performance, Variety reported. Kilmer, who passed away in 2025, was originally cast as Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist, but was too sick to shoot.
Writer/director Coerte Voorhees revealed at the convention that Kilmer's character appears in over an hour of the finished film.
How the Performance Was Built
Production followed SAG guidelines and compensated Kilmer's estate for the work. His family supplied the archival material the filmmakers used to generate the on-screen performance. Kilmer appears at multiple ages: as a spectral, ghost-like figure and as a younger man in his 30s.
Coerte Voorhees, who produced the film with his brother John Voorhees, said the role was built for Kilmer specifically.
"It was very much designed around him. It drew on his Native American heritage and his ties to and love of the Southwest."
The Native American connection is what initially drew Kilmer to the project. The Voorhees brothers built the role with cooperation from Kilmer's estate and his daughter Mercedes.
The Estate's Position
Mercedes Kilmer framed her father's involvement as consistent with how he approached new tools throughout his career.
"He always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling."
The estate's cooperation places "As Deep as the Grave" alongside a small group of productions building AI performances from archival material with explicit family approval. We previously covered similar AI voice work involving James Earl Jones and Orson Welles, where rights holders authorized voice generation for projects after the actors had passed.
The SAG-compliant approach also tracks with the framework Phantom X used for digitizing live actors, which built consent and compensation into the production contract from the start.
The Film
"As Deep as the Grave" tells the story of Ann Axtell Morris, one of the first female archaeologists in the United States, and her excavation of Canyon de Chelly in Arizona. The cast includes Abigail Lawrie, Tom Felton, Abigail Breslin, Tatanka Means, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Wes Studi, and Finn Jones.
What CinemaCon Saw First
CinemaCon trailers are pitched at exhibitors, and the Voorhees brothers chose to disclose the AI workflow up front rather than let it surface as a discovery after release. Presenting the technology as a deliberate creative choice, with the estate's blessing and SAG cover, gives productions a clearer template for cases where a lead actor cannot finish principal photography.
Kilmer's character carries an hour-plus of screen time, which puts the role in lead-performance scope. "As Deep as the Grave" is one of the first features to test how exhibitors, press, and audiences respond when an AI-generated lead is disclosed before release rather than discovered after it.
VP Land discussed the Kilmer AI story on the Denoised podcast when the project first surfaced.
