Chiefs star Travis Kelce is now in the movie-producing business, and his first film has gotten rave reviews. Kelce is an executive producer of the film, ‘My Dead Friend Zoe,’ a dark comedy (as described by IMDb) which was recently shown at the Woodstock Film Festival.
And the film took home the festival’s Grand Jury prize for Best Feature Narrative earlier this month, Deadline reported. The project also won the Haskell Wexler Award for Best Cinematography.
The judges at the Woodstock Film Festival also singled out the film as ‘a standout central performance that delves into the darkness of the human psyche…’
The movie is slated to be released on February 28 of next year – not long after Super Bowl LIX at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
As Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, the writer and director of the film told ScreenRant, two of the film’s producers had a connection to someone on Kelce’s team, and it was arranged for Kelce – a noted supporter of the military – to be sent a script of the army-centric film.
The tight end eventually decided to support the film, which Hausmann-Stokes called ‘surreal.’
‘He’s really brought so much additional attention. And ultimately, selfishly, I want people to enjoy this film, but I want it to affect change,’ he told ScreenRant.
‘So the more eyeballs that are on this film, there’s going to be a veteran somewhere. I don’t know who they are, but they’re going to see this film, and it’s going to be the little nudge that convinces them to talk about it. Just to talk about it. And I think what Travis did for us is just this tidal wave of energy and exposure, and so yeah, we’re so excited to have him.’
The movie involves a ‘female Afghanistan veteran com[ing] head to head with her Vietnam vet grandfather at the family’s ancestral lake house’ amid a ‘mysterious relationship with her dead best friend from the Army,’ according to IMDb.
Kelce has of course been known as one of the NFL’s best tight ends for quite some time, but his relationship with Taylor Swift over the past year has catapulted him to a new level of fame.
He’s taken advantage of that, as he’s also acted in TV series ‘Grotesquerie’ and hosted ‘Are You Smarter Than A Celebrity?’
He’s also set to appear in Adam Sandler’s ‘Happy Gilmore 2.’
This week, he’ll be focused on the Chiefs’ matchup with the Raiders as 6-0 Kansas City looks to stay undefeated.