A new trailer for As Deep as the Grave has resurrected Val Kilmer’s image to put him into a movie he had been slated to appear in before his death.

From Variety:

Kilmer, who died in 2025 after battling throat cancer, was cast as Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist, but was too sick to shoot his role. With the cooperation of Kilmer’s estate and his daughter Mercedes, the “As Deep as the Grave” team used generative AI to include the actor in the finished film.

Director Coerte Voorhees said the role was written for Kilmer and tied closely to his background and interests. The filmmakers argue the approach is ethical because it involved the family, followed SAG guidelines, and compensated the estate. The material used to build the performance came from Kilmer’s own past work and recordings, not from a generic model trained on unknown data.

The project lands at a tense moment in Hollywood. Studios are testing AI tools that can recreate voices, faces, and performances, and actors worry about what that means for their work and their likeness. Contracts now include clauses about digital use. Unions push for limits and consent. If a performance can be built from past footage, the need to hire a living actor can shrink.

The filmmakers behind this project push back on that reading. They frame their decision as narrow and specific. Kilmer had already been cast. His health made filming impossible. The film itself was shaped around him, his background, and his connection to the story. In their view, the choice was not between hiring someone else and using AI. It was between removing him entirely or finding a way to keep him in the film.

The question, then, is whether this move by the filmmakers honors the dead or dishonors the living. While we can’t really say much if the family signs off on the decision, the precedent still holds: we’re all culturally OK with bringing back the dead at this point and it will only get worse or, if we’re Hollywood’s bankers, better.

After all, the dead can’t invoice.

Iran Embassy in Tajikistan posts AI video of Jesus punching Trump in the face

Iran’s Embassy in Tajikistan posted an AI-generated video on X depicting Jesus Christ punching President Trump in the face, sending him tumbling into a fiery pit — a direct mockery of an image Trump had shared on Truth Social portraying himself in a Christ-like, healing role. The video is part of a broader Iranian social media campaign, with AI-generated content from the Iranian firm Explosive Media lampooning Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, while the Trump administration has fired back using imagery from Grand Theft Auto and SpongeBob SquarePants. Trump’s original post had already drawn backlash from his own conservative and Christian supporters who called it blasphemous, and the back-and-forth plays out against the backdrop of ongoing U.S.-Iranian tensions and Trump’s public spat with Pope Leo XIV.

Iran Embassy in Tajikistan @IRANinTJ 7:37 PM · Apr 14, 2026 · 23.9M Views 1.89K Replies · 13.6K Reposts · 131K Likes

Experts sound alarm as new AI-generated videos of Iran war spread across social media

Meidas_Charise Lee @charise_lee The US doesn't have allies anymore because they DO NOT trust Trump‼️ 12:09 AM · Apr 6, 2026 · 143K Views 288 Replies · 1.06K Reposts · 2.95K Likes

Sky News anchor Jayne Secker called out a video on X that depicted her talking about the Iran war. The problem? She was depicted in the video reading a seemingly real news item when the entire thing was fake.

“Hi - this video is fake. I am the newsreader in the image. Have reported to X. Please remove,” she wrote to the poster, a self-described “#RESIST #BLM #EQUALITY☮️ #LGBTQ🌈 #FEMINIST💗.” The poster purports to be part of MeidasTouchNews, a left-wing media organization.

JayneSeckerSky @JayneSeckerSky @charise_lee Hi - this video is fake. I am the newsreader in the image. Have reported to X. Please remove. 7:42 AM · Apr 6, 2026 · 252K Views 69 Replies · 189 Reposts · 1.95K Likes

Netflix plans to add a vertical video feed, use AI for recommendations

Netflix announced plans to launch a TikTok-style vertical video feed within its apps this month, part of a broader push into AI-driven features. The short video feed is intended to help users discover content like video podcasts alongside its existing shows and movies, and builds on testing the company has been doing since last year. On the AI front, co-CEO Gregory Peters highlighted plans to improve Netflix's recommendation systems using newer model architectures, while co-CEO Ted Sarandos described AI as a tool to give artists better capabilities throughout the content creation process.