Val Kilmer died last year, but thanks to generative AI he stars in this historical adventure. Technology is amazing.
Without going over too much old ground, because we’ve covered it already, Val Kilmer sadly passed away before he could appear in the low budget indie drama As Deep As The Grave – in fact, he didn’t shoot a single scene. But with the permission of Kilmer’s estate and a few lakes’ worth of generative AI, the Tombstone and Top Gun star will appear in the film, which is currently seeking distro.
And now we have a trailer, and two things are readily apparent. One is that Kilmer isn’t the only AI artifact here – there’s a lot of AI in the trailer – or, at least, a lot of obvious CGI. The second is that they appear to leaning on Kilmer’s Irish accent from The Ghost And The Darkness.
As Deep As The Grave Trailer
What’s the plot?
Written and directed by Coerte Voorhees, As Deep As The Grave tells the true story of pioneering archeologists Earl and Ann Axtell Morris and their work in Arizona in the 1920s and 1930s to try and trace the history of the Navajo people and the the Ancestral Puebloans or “Anasazi”, thought to be the first civilisation in North America. Other than that, we don’t know much – there doesn’t seem to be much info out there. Kilmer’s character is apparently present throughout the film, though.
Who’s in it?
- Abigail Lawrie as Ann Axtell Morris.
- Tom Felton as Earl H. Morris.
- Val Kilmer, more or less, as Father Fintan.
- Abigail Breslin as Anne Morrow Lindbergh.
- Tatanka Means as Seechi.
- Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as Jean Charlot.
- Wes Studi as Tsali.
- Finn Jones as Charles Lindbergh.
- Ewen Bremner as Sylvanus G. Morley.
- Hanako Footman as Elizabeth Bixler.
When’s it out?
Good question. No release date as yet, but I’d expect sheer curiosity to land it some kind of distro deal, digitally if not theatrically.
What’s the vibe?
Well, it’s not looking great, is it? On some level I understand the drive to complete a movie come hell or high water – thee indie space is brutal, and making a relatively ambitious historical epic on a low budget is a huge undertaking. But the whole exercise feels creepy, doesn’t it? Like, at best.
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