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A Kansas City-area retail store manager moonlighting as a freelance photographer may be about to have his biggest moment yet — on the silver screen.
Mike Day, a freelance photographer from the Northland, sold four photos to Universal/Amblin Entertainment that may appear in "Disclosure Day," a film partially set in Kansas City that opens Friday in the U.S.
"Universal/Amblin Entertainment reached out to me, and at first I was like, is this real?" Day said.
His brother helped convince him the outreach was legitimate.
"He did a Google search, and it was like, 'No, this is the set director for Universal/Amblin Entertainment and Amblin is Steven Spielberg.' So I was like, 'OK, this is pretty overwhelming,'" Day said.
Day said the production team described how his photos could be used in the film.
"They said primarily they thought on the screens behind the anchors in the movie and then they would pan to Emily Blunt as the weather forecaster, the meteorologist," Day said.
It has been more than a decade since Day's photographs first caught Visit KC's eye. He has also had photos published in books and calendars, but the email last year set a new milestone in motion.
"I've got goosebumps, literally, because you know, my picture in any movie would be phenomenal for me," Day said.
Day will have to wait a few days to find out if his work made the final cut. His daughter, Emily, is getting married this weekend.
"The plan is maybe Sunday," Day said. “... It's going to be pretty surreal that this happened, and it's pretty exciting.”
Movies are having a moment again in 2026, with several films already setting record box office numbers.
The latest spellbinding Spielberg alien-centered opus, “Disclosure Day,” is receiving rave reviews, but it’s just the tip of a resurgent summer blockbuster lineup.
"The Mandalorian and Grogu" — the first post-COVID "Star Wars" movie released in theaters — kicked off a massive summer slate that still includes "Toy Story 5," "Supergirl," "The Odyssey," a new Minions movie, a live-action "Moana," Christopher Nolan's "Odyssey" and a new Spider-Man film.
Motion picture director Eric Zaragoza said the volume of releases this year is hard to keep up with.
"It feels like a big blockbuster year,” he said. “There's so many, so many films I can't keep up. That's the crazy part.”
Zaragoza is working with Knowledge Tree Films on a Civil War-era horror movie, “The Haint,” which will begin filming soon in the Kansas City area.
"In the last 20 years, Kansas City has really been glowing up as a global metropolis,” Knowledge Tree Films co-founder and producer Kevin Marcis said. “It's attracting a lot of younger talent, and that kind of talent is very conducive to the work that we do in the film and TV industry.”
Actor Terrence Howard can attest. He’s in town to film a movie — “The Broken Ones,” which is a sequel to “The Real Ones” that is set for an August release — but the Academy Award-nominated actor said compelling storytelling is what drives films to blockbuster status more than a big box-office haul.
"Things became blockbusters, not because kids went to see it, but because parents, grandparents, and the children cared about the story,” Howard said. “We've got to get back to the human element, then you will have blockbusters again that last and stand through the test of time.”
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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