Chiefs, Hallmark teaming up for new movie 'Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story'
The Hallmark card-esque love story of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and musical artist Taylor Swift has now inspired an actual, honest-to-goodness Hallmark Channel original movie.
Hallmark announced Tuesday that filming will begin in Kansas City next month for "Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story," which will air during the channel's 15th annual "Countdown to Christmas" later this year. The Chiefs and Hallmark, which is based in Kansas City, have collaborated for years, but this is the first time they've teamed up for a project of this type.
The movie isn't based on Taylor and Travis, but let's be serious: who would have thought of a Chiefs-based romance movie before they became the world's most high-profile couple?
Starring Hallmark Channel mainstays Tyler Hynes and Hunter King, as well as longtime character actor Ed Begley Jr., the plot is typical heartwarming Hallmark fare, but with a sports twist. From the Hallmark Channel website:
In Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, Alana Higman (King) is sure that her family’s lifelong history as Kansas City Chiefs superfans makes them a frontrunner to win the team’s “Fan of the Year” contest. Derrick (Hynes), Director of Fan Engagement, is tasked with evaluating how Alana and her family stack up against the other two finalists. As the pair spends time together, it’s clear there’s a spark between them but when her grandfather's (Begley Jr.) vintage Chiefs, good luck winter hat goes missing, Alana begins to doubt everything she believed about fate, destiny and even questions her future with Derrick – unless, that is, a little Christmas magic can throw a Hail Mary.
Since the movie is being filmed entirely in Kansas City and the Chiefs are central to its storyline, there will be scenes that take place on location at Arrowhead Field, which Hallmark describes as "the first time the loudest stadium in the world has been used as a filming location in a Hallmark movie."
There are many fans of Hallmark movies out there — chances are you either know one or are one yourself — and both Hallmark and the Chiefs are planning a lot of tie-ins specifically for them, like "game-day activations, unique co-branded merchandise, and on-air, social, and digital promotion."
The exact premiere date has yet to be revealed, but updates are expected once filming begins in July.
