AI Will Resurrect The Late Val Kilmer For One Last Film
Batman Forever and Doors star Val Kilmer left this mortal coil last year, but he still has one film left to carry on his legacy. However, his involvement will not be spared the dreaded spectre of AI leaving its mark. As Flickering Myth reported, the late actor will be brought back to life digitally to finish his work in the action-adventure Canyon of the Dead. The film was in development for years with him attached, and the decision by its makers has the blessing of Kilmer’s family.
Much like Kilmer said as Bruce Wayne, it all still raises too many questions. The world has been afraid and skeptical for generations of what the machines will do when they gain sentience and rise up. The refrain is always either ‘they destroy us’, revive dead celebrities for tacky, ill-advised product endorsements, or somewhere in the middle. Where we’re at now is off-center and leaning toward seeing our favorite actors and icons perform from beyond the grave.
Whether anyone wants it or not is irrelevant; this is the future, and not a distant one. AI is creating lifelike crossovers and death battles nobody thought they would witness due to Hollywood’s bureaucracy and creative cowardice. Seeing that, some bereaved Kilmer fans are sure to embrace the development as one last, unexpected encore from a legend they weren’t ready to lose.
That is understandable, and honestly, there is an elephant in the room above that most fail to address: none of this is new. Pop culture and the film industry were at this crossroads before, when Brandon Lee was tragically killed when a stunt went wrong while filming The (one, true) Crow. Despite the use of double Chad Stahelski, early digital tricks were used to insert Lee’s face where required.
A decade and a half later, Terry Gilliam found a creative way, free of AI and CGI, to work around Heath Ledger’s death to finish The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. However, if generative AI were available to Gilliam at the time, he may have been coerced into using it in the name of invention or plain old keeping costs down.
Back to Kilmer, we have already seen AI play a part in restoring something he lost, though the line was drawn in a different place. In Top Gun: Maverick, AI technology was used to bring back the voice that was destroyed by throat cancer. That occurred before his passing, of course, and Maverick will remain Kilmer’s last performance physically.
Canyon of the Dead is written and directed by Coerte Voorhees. It stars Tom Felton, Abigail Breslin, Ewen Bremner, Wes Studi, and Finn Jones. The story is based on the life of archaeologists Ann and Earl Morris, who contributed to the discovery of the prehistoric Anasazi Basketmakers.
Images of Kilmer, AI or otherwise, have not leaked, but according to Flickering Myth, he can be seen in the trailer presented at the European Film Market.
NEXT: ‘Batman Forever’ And ‘Tombstone’ Star Val Kilmer Dies At 65
