Val Kilmer has had a long and varied acting career — not just in genre movies, though he has made quite a few of those. So we’re used to seeing him in front of the camera. But who knew that the star of Batman Forever, Willow, Top Gun, Tombstone, and so many other iconic movies was also behind the camera a lot of the time, too?
Coming soon from Amazon Prime Video, the documentary Val chronicles the actor’s decades in Hollywood (with what looks like some childhood footage too, as well as new interviews with the actor following his recent battle with throat cancer). Notably, a lot of the doc is made up of footage Kilmer shot himself. Today, a brand-new trailer has arrived. Take a look:
Kilmer didn’t direct the film (Leo Scott and Ting Poo are credited as co-directors) but he is among its producers, and obviously had a heavy hand in bringing it together. Still, it doesn’t seem like Val will hold back on showing some of the darker sides of show biz. It also looks like there’ll be some intriguing cameos from his co-stars from over the years — including a very young Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn, who appeared with Kilmer in Broadway’s Slab Boys in the early 1980s.
Here’s the official description: “For over 40 years Val Kilmer, one of Hollywood’s most mercurial and/or misunderstood actors has been documenting his own life and craft through film and video. He has amassed thousands of hours of footage, from 16mm home movies made with his brothers, to time spent in iconic roles for blockbuster movies like Top Gun, The Doors, Tombstone, and Batman Forever. This raw, wildly original and unflinching documentary reveals a life lived to extremes and a heart-filled, sometimes hilarious look at what it means to be an artist and a complex man.”
The actor took to Twitter to share his excitement about the documentary: “It feels like yesterday and yet it has been a lifetime. As I write this, my documentary is getting ready to premiere at Festival De Cannes. And as grateful as I am for being selected with this high honour, I look forward most to sharing my life’s story with all of you.”
After its Cannes debut, Val hits theatres on July 23, then arrives on Amazon Prime Video on August 6.