In 2016, I attended a special screening of Heat hosted by Christopher Nolan that ranks among my all-time favorite moviegoing experiences, and one of the many things that made it such a special evening was the appearance of Val Kilmer, who was battling throat cancer at the time. I imagine it took tremendous courage just to show up that night, let alone speak in front of hundreds of people, but the fact that Val was surrounded by a room full of his industry peers must've made it feel like a safe space for the actor, who nonetheless has always been fearless.
Kilmer's strength and courage will no doubt be on full display in Val, a new documentary about the actor, who has been documenting his own life and craft through film and video for more than 40 years, dating back to 16mm home movies made with his brothers. He has amassed thousands of hours of footage between his own personal life and his time on the set of movies like Top Gun, Batman Forever and Tombstone, and you can now watch the trailer for the Amazon doc below.
The streamer's press release describes Kilmer as "one of Hollywood’s most mercurial and/or misunderstood actor[s]," and bills Val as a "raw, wildly original and unflinching documentary [that] 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." I don't know about you, but as a longtime fan, that sounds pretty interesting to me.
Val hails from directors Leo Scott and Ting Poo, who produced the film alongside Kilmer as well as
Andrew Fried, Dane Lillegard, Jordan Wynn, Brad Koepenick and Ali Alborzi. The film was executive produced by Ben Cotner, who has been involved with some terrific documentary projects such as The Case Against 8, The Keepers, Wild Wild Country, Five Came Back and 13th.
Amazon Studios will release Val in theaters on July 23 before it arrives on Prime Video on Aug. 6. Watch the trailer below, as this is one documentary I can't wait to check out myself, having been a fan of Kilmer since I was just a kid laughing my little tuchas off while watching Real Genius -- which still holds up, I swear!
