# Coerte Voorhees

Writer and filmmaker. TIME100 AI 2026, Innovators. With the family's consent, he used AI to finish the late Val Kilmer's role, which now fills over an hour of his film. ([variety.com](https://variety.com/2026/film/news/val-kilmer-ai-as-deep-as-the-grave-trailer-1236722342/))

- Born: Boulder, Colorado, United States ([imdb.com](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6173242/))
- Education: MFA, Film and television production, University of Southern California, 2016; BA, History and classics, Georgetown University, 2012 ([imdb.com](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6173242/))
- Career: First Line Films (Founder, 2016 to now); A Visionary Film (Co-founder) ([firstlinefilmsnm.com](https://www.firstlinefilmsnm.com/new-page))
- TIME profile: https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/2026/coerte-voorhees/
- Profile: https://www.autumn.ai/resources/most-influential-people-in-ai/coerte-voorhees

- The AI-generated Val Kilmer character in his film As Deep as the Grave appears for over an hour of screen time. ([variety.com](https://variety.com/2026/film/news/val-kilmer-ai-as-deep-as-the-grave-trailer-1236722342/))
- Cast Kilmer about five years before the actor's 2025 death; COVID shutdowns stretched the production to six years, which led to the AI approach. ([variety.com](https://variety.com/2026/film/news/val-kilmer-ai-film-as-deep-as-the-grave-1236691042/))
- His debut feature, The First Line, a thriller about the Parthenon marbles, was shot on location inside the Parthenon in Athens. ([firstlinefilmsnm.com](https://www.firstlinefilmsnm.com/new-page))
- The First Line came out on Netflix in September 2016, the same year he finished his film MFA at USC. ([imdb.com](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6173242/))
- Avoids calling the result a Kilmer performance, saying instead that Val Kilmer influenced this performance. ([cbc.ca](https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/val-kilmer-ai-trailer-9.7166746))
- Told TIME that Netflix, Amazon and Apple had been talking to him about his AI process. ([time.com](https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/2026/coerte-voorhees/))