KC, phone home: Does Steven Spielberg’s new UFO movie take place in Kansas City?
Steven Spielberg has been filming a movie this year in New Jersey and New York, but photos on social media suggest that the movie could be a close encounter for Kansas City.
Is the movie set in KC?
Last week a software engineer on X tweeted a photo from the set in New Jersey.
“Steven Spielberg just casually transforming my campus into Kansas City,” he wrote.
He included a photo of a building dressed like a TV station with fake call letters, KCXE, on the front. Another picture showed satellite dishes locked behind a fence with this sign, “KCXE 4 Broadcast Operations.”
In reality, that building is on the campus of the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark.
A photo posted on Reddit showed the same building with the words “Kansas City News” emblazoned on the side in tall red letters.
Details about the film, set for a 2026 release, are sparse, though it is described as a UFO movie, familiar territory for the legendary Oscar-winner who directed “E.T.” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
Some entertainment outlets have tapped this new film as one of the most anticipated sci-fi movies coming down the road.
In late February, photos published by a local New York newspaper provided the strongest evidence that at least some of the action involves Kansas City.
The Journal News, which covers New York’s Lower Hudson Valley, published a series of photos of the filmmaking underway in White Plains, New York.
They showed Spielberg and actress Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer,” “The Devil Wears Prada”) on the set.
A Kansas City Police Department car was on set, too. Spielberg was seen crouching next to one as he worked.
Another photo showed a Kansas City Royals street signed posted high on a lamppost. It was Royals blue, bore the team’s crown-shaped icon, its web address and read: “You’re in Royals country. Get your season tickets now.”
“We can see Steven Spielberg there standing next to a cop car. It says Kansas City on that by the way. So clearly parts of it are going to take place in Kansas City,” UFO sleuth Patrick Scott Armstrong said on his podcast, “Vetted,” while discussing the film.
“Even though they’re filming in Jersey, they make it seem like Kansas City.”
In March, as Spielberg filmed in Westchester County, New York, a Reddit user reported seeing the local library “dolled up” as the “Jackson County Hospital,” noting that Kansas City is in Jackson County, Missouri.
“I saw the ambulances on set all said Jackson County this morning,” another Reddit user responded.
The Star asked the KC Film Office if it knew anything about the movie and whether, indeed, it takes place in a fake KC.
Spielberg has filmed other projects in the Northeast and is so familiar with the area he reportedly told one mayor to never change his town.
With last year’s popular Hallmark Christmas movie about the Chiefs and several reality TV shows filmed here in recent months, the KC film industry is in the midst of “an exciting time,” film office director Rachel Kephart told The Star recently.
“We have world-class crews, diverse locations, geographic accessibility and competitive film incentives that make filming in KC a good business decision,” she said.
Asked about the Spielberg film, the office said in a statement that it did “not have any further details to share regarding this project.”
The film is said to be based on an original story by Spielberg with a screenplay by longtime collaborator David Koepp, who worked with him on the first “Jurassic Park” film and two “Indiana Jones” movies.
The title hasn’t been revealed, though it appears to be shooting under the name, “Non-View.”
“Disclosure” and “The Dish” have been bandied about, too.
Blunt stars alongside Wyatt Russell, Colin Firth, Colman Domingo, Josh O’Connor and Eve Hewson.
The film is slated for a June 12, 2026, premiere which sets it up to be Spielberg’s return to big summer blockbusters like “Jaws” and “Jurassic Park.”
As for that KCPD car Spielberg huddled against, that vehicle could use a little more Hollywood magic.
“This car does not resemble any Kansas City Missouri Police cars,” KCPD spokesman Jacob Becchina told the Star.
This story was originally published May 16, 2025 at 6:15 AM.
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