Travis Kelce Produced A Movie About Veterans And It Looks Amazing
It's just a few weeks after Veteran's Day, but we just learned about a great movie about veterans, called My Dead Friend Zoe. The film is the directorial debut of Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, a former U.S. Army infantry paratrooper and Iraq War Bronze Star veteran; Hausmann-Stokes also co-wrote the film, according to Variety. The film was executive produced by Travis Kelce, his first foray into executive producing films.
My Dead Friend Zoe is actually based on the true life story of Luis Ramirez-Jimenez and Boris Ventura, two of Hausmann-Stokes' army platoonmates, according to Collider.
The film pays tribute to the post-combat experience of veterans. It stars Sonequa Martin-Green, who played Sasha for five seasons on the original Walking Dead series; more recently, she played Michael Burnham, the lead character on all five seasons of Star Trek: Discovery. Her co-star is Natalie Morales, who played Lucy on Parks And Recreation (Tom Haverford's on-and-off girlfriend); she's also starred and co-starred on a number of other shows, including The Middleman, White Collar, Trophy Wife and The Grinder, among other shows.
Martin-Green plays Merit, a U.S. Army Afghanistan veteran who is haunted by memories of her dead friend Zoe (Morales). Morgan Freeman plays her VA group counselor, and Gloria Reuben (well known for her stints on ER and Mr. Robot, among many other shows and movies) plays Merit's mother. Ed Harris plays her grandfather, who is a Vietnam veteran.
The film won the Audience Award at SXSW earlier this year; it has also received honors at the Woodstock Film Festival and the Mill Valley Film Festival. My Dead Friend Zoe is scheduled to hit theaters nationwide on February 28, 2025. Watch the trailer below.
