At Cinema Con in Las Vegas on Wednesday, moviegoers got a glimpse As deep as the gravea movie that made headlines last month when Its creators announced that they would add AI-generated images of Val Kilmer.
Kilmer’s heirs, his daughter, and possibly his son reportedly approved this use of his image.
Kilmer actually agreed to be in the film when he was alive, and production began in 2020, but filming was delayed by Covid and other issues.
Then Val Kilmer was taken from movie lovers too soon, at the relatively young age of 65, after a long public battle with cancer. It’s hard not to think about that fact when AI Kilmer looks another character in the eyes and says, “Don’t fear the dead and don’t fear me,” the only line of clear English dialogue spoken in the trailer.
The film is about Ann Axtell Morris, a real archaeologist who made important discoveries to humanity’s understanding of Native American history. The motto of the motto is “Some stories were too hidden to be found.”
Kilmer plays a priest named Father Fintan, who is also a Native American spiritualist. In the trailer, we first see a man who appears to be in his seventies. Whether or not this man is supposed to be older, the AI-generated Kilmer is ambiguous. Other characters in this night scene also look like AI representations. Later images of Kilmer make him look young, as Top gun young. His voice, when he finally speaks, is a soft, slightly whispered approximation of young Kilmer’s. but it doesn’t sound distinctly like Val Kilmer.
Kilmer’s voice was as important to his film stardom as his physique. His speech was both smooth and booming, effortlessly enunciated and audiobook-ready, but always with a slightly submerged note of mania ready to burst forth. Capturing all that with AI seems like a big task.
Director Coerté Voorhees told the Washington Post the film will be long and the AI-generated character Kilmer will be on screen for 1 hour and 17 minutes of its duration.
