Audiences got a glimpse of it at Cinema Con in Las Vegas on Wednesday as deep as the graveA film that made headlines last month when its makers announced that they would be adding AI-generated images of Val Kilmer to it.
Reportedly, Kilmer’s estate, his daughter, and possibly his son all signed off on this use of his likeness.
Kilmer had actually agreed to work on the film while he was alive, and production began in 2020, but filming was delayed due to COVID and other issues.
Then Val Kilmer was taken from movie lovers at the relatively young age of 65 after a long and public cancer battle. It’s hard to think about the fact that AI Kilmer looks into another character’s eyes and says, “Don’t be afraid of the dead and don’t be afraid of me,” the only line of clear, English-language dialogue spoken in the trailer.
The film is about Ann Axel Morris, a real archaeologist who made discoveries vital to humanity’s understanding of Native American history. The tagline includes the slogan “Some stories were so hidden they couldn’t be discovered.”
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 person is considered the older, AI-generated Kilmer is unclear. The other characters in this night scene also look like AI renderings. Later images of Kilmer make him look younger top Gun Youth. His voice, when he finally speaks, is the low, slightly whispery sound of young Kilmer, But it clearly doesn’t sound like Val Kilmer.
Kilmer’s voice was as important to his film stardom as his physical appearance. His speech was simultaneously soft and fast, effortlessly enunciated and audiobook-ready, but always ready to burst with a tone of slightly subdued ecstasy. Capturing all that with AI seems like a huge undertaking.
Director Koert Voorhees told The Washington Post that the film will be long, and the AI-generated Kilmer character will be on screen for 1 hour and 17 minutes of its runtime.
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