Travis Kelce is not only the best tight end of his generation; he is also a media personality and a savvy businessman. Now, the Kansas City Chiefs player is combining these last two facets to venture into a new field: independent cinema.
According to the online edition of Variety magazine, Kelce is venturing into filmmaking as the executive producer of an independent film titled “My Dead Friend Zoe.”
The film will be produced by Radiant Media Studios and distributed by Creative Artists Agency (CAA), the latter representing Kelce. Energy entrepreneur Mike Fields and Ray Maiello are the producers of the film.
What will Kelce’s film be about?
Natalie Morales, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, and Sonequa Martin-Green will star in the independent film, which will premiere at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival on March 9.
Kyle Hausmann-Stokes will direct the film, which will follow Morales in the role of a female veteran of Afghanistan. Morales’ character returns to her family’s ancestral home, where she enters in a conflict with her grandfather, Dale, a Vietnam veteran played by Harris.
The screenplay was written by Hausmann-Stokes, A.J. Bermudez, and Cherish Chen.
The unusual financing of the film
Fields and Maiello turned to an unusual source of money for their film. Producers will take advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act approved in August 2022, which seeks to boost development and investment in clean energy in the United States.
The money for “My Dead Friend Zoe” comes from surplus Green Energy Tax Credits sold by Fields under the Act. This is also the source of funding for “King Pleasure,” another film produced by Fields, Maiello, and Kelce.