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Joe Biden didn’t get Taylor Swift’s endorsement on Super Bowl Sunday, as some had predicted. But her boyfriend Travis Kelce is using the president’s renewable energy tax credits to finance the movie “My Dead Friend Zoe.”
The SXSW-bound indie, starring Natalie Morales, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman and Sonequa Martin-Green, marks Kelce’s first foray into film, with the Kansas City Chiefs tight end serving as executive producer. Investors in the low-budget dark comedy, including Kelce, are the first to take advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to finance a film. (“My Dead Friend Zoe” cost less than $10 million.)
The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in August 2022, marks “the largest investment in climate and energy in American history, enabling the United States to address the climate crisis, advance environmental justice, and secure the position of United States as a world leader in domestic clean energy manufacturing. and put the United States on the path to achieving the Biden-Harris Administration’s climate goals, including a net-zero economy by 2050,” according to the US Department of Energy website. “My Dead Friend Zoe” used money generated by the sale of surplus tax credits from green energy entrepreneur Mike Field. (Field is also a producer on the film.)
“Hollywood is risky, right? On a scale of one to 10, Hollywood, it’s a 9.5. Especially in terms of independent film,” says “My Dead Friend Zoe” producer Ray Maiello, who runs California-based Radiant Media Studios with Field and is the former head of business affairs at Netflix. “These federal tax credits reduce the risk to five points.”
Kelce, Maiello and Field are using the same strategy to finance a second film, the Jean-Michel Basquiat documentary “King Pleasure.” The Boardwalk Pictures film is directed by Quinn Wilson, Lizzo’s former creative director, and is being made with the cooperation of the late artist’s estate. Kelce, Maiello and Field could spark a trend in Hollywood of using the Inflation Reduction Act as a way to raise money and bolster the weakened independent film sector. These types of agreements have become common outside of Hollywood and They now represent a market worth between $7 billion and $9 billion..
“(Field) and I wanted to expand and we’ve been talking about (expanding) for years. And then Biden really encouraged it,” Maiello adds. “Biden saw that people cannot plan what their tax obligations will be. People don’t want to take risks. And then he really opened it up with these federal tax credits and we’re combining it with Hollywood. That’s the idea.”
Directed by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, “My Dead Friend Zoe” follows an Afghanistan veteran (Morales) who comes face to face with her Vietnam veteran grandfather (Harris) at the family’s ancestral lake home. The film, which will have its world premiere at SXSW on March 9, is being sold by CAA. Legion M is also involved in the film as producers.
Although Kelce has already indicated that he will return for the 2024-25 NFL season to join the Chiefs’ effort for possibly three-time Super Bowl champions, he is now making his foray into Hollywood, in a similar vein to Tom Brady, who recently He played himself in the hit comedy “80 for Brady” and has also been producing. Kelce is represented by CAA.