Ryan Kalil, who grew up outside L.A. before playing his college football at USC, is inching closer to a career in Hollywood.

According to entertainment site Deadline, the Carolina Panthers' center is set to be an executive producer of a feature pitch recently bought by Sony Pictures. The project is based on the soon-to-be-released "Son of Shaolin," a graphic novel backed by Kalil's Strange Turn Entertainment.

The plot is still unclear, but Deadline's Mike Fleming Jr. wrote:

"I’m told the hope is it has the recipe to start a global franchise, a contemporary Kung-Fu story that intertwines Shaolin mythology with many of the current issues faced by teens growing up in a gentrifying neighborhood."

Kalil reportedly will be joined by another producer with football ties. Dwayne Johnson, who won a national championship at Miami, may also have a role in the film.

Kalil signed a 2-year contract extension earlier this month, but he's long had an eye on his post-playing days.

On Wednesday, he announced the release of "The Rookie Handbook," co-written by his former Panthers teammates Jordan Gross and Geoff Hangartner. And days before Carolina used a second-round pick on Kalil in 2007, he joined Will Ferrell in a video that's since racked up more than 4-million views on YouTube: