{"id":394066,"date":"2026-04-15T21:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T21:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/394066\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T21:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T21:05:07","slug":"val-kilmers-ai-generated-likeness-leads-as-deep-as-the-grave-trailer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/394066\/","title":{"rendered":"Val Kilmer’s AI-Generated Likeness Leads As Deep as the Grave Trailer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tVal Kilmer<\/a>\u2018s AI<\/a>-generated likeness is front and center in the trailer<\/a> for the forthcoming movie As Deep as the Grave.<\/p>\n

\n\tWriter-director Coerte Voorhees\u2019 feature debuted the footage at CinemaCon<\/a> in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Abigail Lawrie, Tom Felton<\/a> and Abigail Breslin<\/a> round out the cast for the indie film. <\/p>\n

\n\tAs Deep as the Grave centers on real-life archaeologists Ann (Lawrie) and Earl Morris (Felton), who unearthed remains of the Ancestral Puebloans in the 1920s.<\/p>\n

\n\tKilmer\u2019s likeness can be seen portraying Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist. \u201cDon\u2019t fear the dead, and don\u2019t fear me,\u201d his likeness says in the trailer.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Top Gun and Batman Forever actor, who died in April 2025 at age 65 after a long battle with throat cancer, had been cast in the film before he passed but was not well enough to shoot his scenes. As noted in a release from production company First Line Films, Voorhees opted to digitally create Kilmer\u2019s performance with the support of the late star\u2019s daughter, Mercedes Kilmer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen Val came onboard the project five years ago, he immediately identified with the historical southwestern spiritual character of Father Fintan, and understood the importance of elevating awareness of Ann Morris\u2019 incredible story as the first female archaeologist in North America,\u201d Voorhees said in a previous statement. \u201cIt was very unfortunate that his health at the time prevented him from playing this role which spoke to him spiritually and culturally.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tMercedes Kilmer added in a statement about her father: \u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe use of AI in Hollywood has become a hotly debated topic as recent legislation has sought to protect actors\u2019 posthumous digital likenesses. The news of AI-generated actor Tilly Norwood<\/a> led to criticism from members of the industry, including SAG-AFTRA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Val Kilmer\u2018s AI-generated likeness is front and center in the trailer for the forthcoming movie As Deep as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[61917,345,343,344,163362,85,46,125,39695,81077,6407,167448],"class_list":{"0":"post-394066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-abigail-breslin","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-artificialintelligence","12":"tag-cinemacon","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-technology","16":"tag-tilly-norwood","17":"tag-tom-felton","18":"tag-trailer","19":"tag-val-kilmer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}