Taylor Swift's Boyfriend, Travis Kelce, Produces New Movie, Boosted Financially by Biden
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is one of the executive producers of an independent film, due out March 9, that will be the first to take advantage of a provision of President Joe Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act from 2022.
Kelce is listed as an executive producer for “My Dead Friend Zoe,” which probably means he did nothing but invest in its production, particularly since most of the production work appears to have been completed during the football season when Kelce was otherwise occupied.
According to a Feb. 13 report from Variety, the “low-budget dark comedy” had a budget of less than $10 million; Kelce’s net worth is reportedly in the $40 million-plus range.
The IMDb page for the movie lists a total of 11 executive producers, all of whom are likely to have invested in the movie. The specific amount of Kelce’s contribution was unreported but seems likely to have been somewhere in the six figures.
Kelce — who has gained a lot of attention in recent months because of his relationship with pop star Taylor Swift — may be new to the movie business, but not everyone associated with the production is. The cast includes such notables as Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman, as well as Sonequa Martin-Green from “The Walking Dead” and “Star Trek: Discovery,” Gloria Reuben from “ER” and Utkarsh Ambudkar from “Free Guy” and the sitcom “Ghosts.”
Producer Mike Field funded part of the film’s production through the sale of surplus energy credits made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act.
Fellow producer Ray Maiello, a former head of business affairs for Netflix who is now Field’s partner in Radiant Media Studios, said the credits help offset some of the risks in movie making.
“Hollywood is risky, right? On a scale of one to 10, Hollywood, it is a 9.5,” Maiello told Variety. “Especially in terms of independent film.”
“These federal tax credits take the risk down to like a five,” he explained.
“[Field] and I wanted to branch out and we’ve been talking about [expanding] for years. And then Biden really incentivized it,” Maiello added. “Biden saw that people can’t plan what their tax liabilities are going to be. People don’t want to take risks.
“And so he really opened it up with these federal tax credits and we’re combining that with Hollywood,” he said. “That’s the idea.”
“My Dead Friend Zoe” may be the first motion picture partially financed by the sale of energy credits, but it’s certainly not going to be the last. Variety reported that Field, Kelce and Maiello are also funding a documentary called “King Pleasure” the same way.
“Kelce, Maiello and Field could spark a trend in Hollywood of employing the Inflation Reduction Act as a way to raise funds and bolster the flagging indie film sector,” the outlet reported. “These types of deals have become common outside of Hollywood and now represent a market worth between $7 billion and $9 billion.”
The outlet noted that former NFL quarterback Tom Brady had been producing films as well.
Kelce, who has appeared in commercials for State Farm and Campbell’s soup, among other brands, has looked to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a model for his own career, according to the New York Post’s Page Six.
Rachel Richardson, a former SnapChat executive who now covers popular trends in her Highly Flammable newsletter, told Page Six that Kelce could become a bigger household name than Johnson.
“He’s been open about his acting ambitions and how much he admires The Rock,” she said. “Looking at the trajectory he’s currently on I think he could even surpass Johnson’s career.”
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