KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has slowly expanded his empire to be on screen and now behind the big screen.
The last offseason brought several Kelce commercials and multiple appearances on "Saturday Night Live."
This offseason, the three-time Super Bowl champion will debut as a film producer for a low-budget dark comedy called “My Dead Friend Zoe” according to a report from Variety.
Kelce is listed as an executive producer.
"My Dead Friend Zoe" is about a U.S. Army veteran, the dead best friend she can't let go and her estranged grandfather. The film stars Ed Harris, Sonequa Martin-Green and Natalie Morales, who are all credited as executive producers alongside Kelce. Actor Morgan Freeman is also featured in the movie.
The film will make its world premiere at the South by Southwest film festival on March 9. It was produced by Legion M and is being sold by CAA, the talent agency that Kelce signed with last year.
This is also believed to be the first film funded by 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act to finance a film.
The Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed in August 2022, marks “the single largest investment in climate and energy in American history, enabling America to tackle the climate crisis, advancing environmental justice, securing America’s position as a world leader in domestic clean energy manufacturing and putting the United States on a pathway to achieving the Biden-Harris Administration’s climate goals, including a net-zero economy by 2050,” according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s web site.
“My Dead Friend Zoe” used money generated by green energy entrepreneur Mike Field’s sale of surplus tax credits. (Field is also a producer on the film.)
Kelce is using the same strategy to fund a second film, a documentary about late Brooklyn artist Jean-Michel Basquiat called “King Pleasure.”
These types of deals have become common outside of Hollywood and now represent a market worth between $7 billion and $9 billion.