Hollywood just crossed a new line: a dead actor is “starring” again—without filming a single frame—and nobody can say for sure the viral “7 minutes” claim is true.
Quick Take
- Val Kilmer, who died in April 2025, is set to appear posthumously in the indie film As Deep as the Grave through a fully AI-generated performance.
- Filmmakers say Kilmer never shot scenes for the project due to illness, making this a rare case of a role created entirely “from scratch” using generative AI.
- Kilmer’s children, Mercedes and Jack, approved the use of his likeness and voice, a key distinction from unauthorized deepfakes.
- A CinemaCon trailer debut in Las Vegas reportedly showed AI-rendered Kilmer with about 1 hour and 17 minutes of screen time.
What the Film Is Doing—and Why It’s Different
Filmmakers behind As Deep as the Grave say they used generative AI to create a posthumous on-screen performance for Val Kilmer, who was cast years earlier but was too ill to film. Reports describe this as a full character built without original footage—more than a touch-up or brief cameo. That makes it a notable escalation in how entertainment companies can “use” a person after death, even with family approval.
The project’s timeline matters. Kilmer’s health had already forced high-profile compromises before, including AI-assisted work to recreate or strengthen his voice for Top Gun: Maverick in 2022 after throat cancer damaged his speech. After Kilmer’s death in 2025, the unfinished indie film faced a choice: recast, rewrite, or attempt a technological workaround. Producers chose AI, and the family consented to the plan.
CinemaCon Debut Shows How Fast the Technology Is Moving
Industry attention spiked after a trailer debuted at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. One report says the AI-rendered Kilmer appears for roughly 1 hour and 17 minutes—an unusually large amount of screen time for any posthumous recreation, and a signal that this isn’t a brief tribute. The film is described as nearing completion, with a release targeted for 2026, though a specific date has not been consistently reported.
This also lands in the shadow of Hollywood’s recent labor fights over AI and likeness rights. After the major disputes of the mid-2020s, studios, unions, and lawmakers have all been pushed to define what consent actually means in practical terms: consent while alive, consent by heirs, consent limited to one project, or consent that can be reused later. This film highlights how quickly those questions move from theoretical to contractual—and how hard it is for average viewers to know what they’re seeing.
The “7 Minutes” Claim Isn’t Confirmed by the Core Reporting
The most viral version of this story is the idea that it “only took 7 minutes” to generate an AI Kilmer for a scene. That claim may be click-driven shorthand, but the core reporting summarized here does not confirm a precise production time for creating the performance. The credible details that are consistent across reports are broader: Kilmer did not film scenes for the indie project, AI was used to generate a complete role, and the family approved the likeness and voice use.
That distinction matters for the public debate. If Americans are being asked to accept AI-generated human performances as normal, they also deserve clear information about how these products are made, who controlled the process, and what guardrails existed. Vague or unverified claims about speed can distract from the real policy questions: who owns a face, a voice, and an identity—and for how long after death.
Consent Helps, But It Doesn’t End the Bigger Trust Problem
Family approval is a major ethical difference between this project and the many unauthorized deepfakes circulating online. Still, consent alone doesn’t address every concern, especially for audiences already skeptical of powerful institutions rewriting rules in real time. AI acting raises practical issues—job displacement, contract leverage, and authenticity—and cultural ones, including whether viewers are being sold “performance” without the human labor that traditionally gives acting its meaning.
It only took 7 minutes to create an AI-generated Val Kilmer for a scene in his new moviehttps://t.co/t4lYie2xZg
— Lisa Marie (@FaitAccomplii) April 16, 2026
For conservatives and liberals who already agree the country’s elites play by different rules, entertainment AI can look like another arena where big money and new tech move faster than accountability. The Kilmer case may be respectful, exploitative, or somewhere in between—but the available reporting supports one unavoidable conclusion: the technology now makes it possible to keep public figures “working” after they’re gone, and the rules for that future are not settled.
Sources:
AI-rendered Val Kilmer debuts in ‘As Deep as the Grave’ trailer
AI version of the late Val Kilmer to star in new movie
