Back in 2017, the world of cinema was graced with a disappointing film known as The Snowman. Ironically, the head-scratching thriller featured a star-studded cast that included the late, great Val Kilmer.
Before his death in 2025, the Top Gun star was battling throat cancer, and those who saw The Snowman probably noticed early on that Kilmer’s voice was eerily dubbed over due to his condition.
Years later, the filmmakers behind As Deep as the Grave have decided that their upcoming western necessitates Kilmer’s presence, despite the fact that he’s no longer with us. This week, they debuted a trailer at CinemaCon, giving the Las Vegas viewers a first look at the AI technology in action that was used to create the Batman Forever star’s performance.
Kilmer had been cast as Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist, but was too sick to shoot his role, Variety reports. With the cooperation of Kilmer’s estate and his daughter, the As Deep as the Grave team used generative AI to include the actor in the finished film.
The trailer is now available on YouTube, and you’ll see that Kilmer appears a number of times throughout — and at various ages! Check it out below.
Just as the reactions were mixed when a first look of the AI-generated Kilmer was revealed last month, the comments that are mounting on the YouTube trailer upload are generally not so positive. “Val was a great actor – this digital resurrection is a travesty,” wrote one user, while another person commented, “Super creepy and weird.”
In a statement to Variety, meanwhile, Mercedes Kilmer said her father would have wanted to be included in As Deep as the Grave: “He always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling. This spirit is something that we are all honoring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part.”
