Val Gets to Sing

Sissy Spacek did it when she played country queen Loretta Lynn in “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” Gary Busey did it when he starred in “The Buddy Holly Story.” So why not Val Kilmer doing his own singing when he portrays legendary rocker Jim Morrison in “The Doors”?

Kilmer, we’ve learned, will be doing most of his own warbling in Oliver Stone’s upcoming film, though it’s yet to be resolved whether Kilmer will also be heard on the sound-track album.

A representative for Elektra Records--the Doors’ label, which will also release the soundtrack--was among those who attended a rough-cut screening of the movie late last week, in part to determine the matter.

A graduate of the Juilliard School, Kilmer--like the dusky-voiced Morrison--is a baritone. He did his own singing in the 1984 rock ‘n’ roll parody, “Top Secret!” For his role as Morrison, he worked vocally with the Doors’ former producer, Paul Rothchild, who’s a consultant on the film and insists that Kilmer sounds “terrific.”

A spokeswoman for the film, due March 1 from Tri-Star Pictures, emphasizes that it “is not a performance film--the music is part of the story.”

While musical performance sequences in the film will feature a “mix” of both Kilmer’s and Morrison’s voices, only Morrison and the original Doors will be heard on the background score.