LOS ANGELES – Matthew McConaughey had plenty of reasons to select \u201cThe Rivals of Amziah King\u201d, a honey-themed thriller set in the American Southwest, for his return to the big screen after more than five years away.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe joy, the soul, the humour, the music, the poetry, the mythology, original time, place, and space,\u201d the Oscar-winning actor told AFP when asked why he had chosen the indie film for his comeback.<\/p>\n
Written and directed by Andrew Patterson, The Rivals of Amziah King follows McConaughey\u2019s charismatic local honey producer, who splits his time between tending his beehives and playing the banjo in a folk band of friends and neighbours.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew these people. I liked the way they loved each other. I liked the way they they fought with each other, I liked the way they cared. I liked the way they use music and humour to survive,\u201d the 56-year-old Texan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmziah is a guy who really, at the heart of himself, gives people belonging, helps people belong, and that\u2019s part of the thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis wasn\u2019t the reason I did it, but in hindsight, I go: \u2018That\u2019s a nice thing to put out there into the world, and share with people.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Strong Indigenous woman\u2019<\/p>\n
McConaughey stepped away from movies after Guy Ritchie\u2019s 2019 dark comedy The Gentlemen, turning his focus to writing his memoir Greenlights.<\/p>\n
Although movie-goers saw him last year in The Lost Bus, that was filmed after The Rivals of Amziah King wrapped.<\/p>\n
The Southwestern US tale, which draws on genres like crime, comedy, musical, and drama, sees King\u2019s life take on a new purpose when he reconnects with Kateri \u2014 played by Angelina LookingGlass \u2014 a young Native American woman he had first taken in years earlier with his late wife.<\/p>\n
With life lessons learned among the bees, communal dinners, and music, King not only helps her gradually integrate into the community, but also passes on his leadership role to her.<\/p>\n
However, the young woman soon learns that the world of honey isn\u2019t as sweet as it seems.<\/p>\n
For LookingGlass, the role was a perfect fit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really loved playing her,\u201d the 22-year-old told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people would underestimate her just by just looking at her. You know, they wouldn\u2019t expect the things that she does.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer being this really strong Indigenous woman, and this person that goes under the radar, but then like bites at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
That sting was very intentional on the part of Andrew Patterson, who developed the project after his acclaimed debut film, The Vast of Night (2019).<\/p>\n
Patterson wanted to centre the film around a Native American woman who stops at nothing, he told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe just uses her intellect and resourcefulness. And I was excited to put that kind of character into the world. That was that was quite literally the germ of an idea that made me want to go, and then eventually the Amziah character came after that,\u201d Patterson explained.<\/p>\n
McConaughey wasn\u2019t initially in his plans, said the indie filmmaker, who also added Kurt Russell to his cast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just a guy in Oklahoma writing scripts, making little movies. It had nothing. There was no way that this had any chance to get in front of him.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd over a number of years, and people getting behind my career, and you know, I think in spirit, Matthew and I were on a collision course for each other. There was no way of knowing that it would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patterson said he was \u201cgrateful\u201d to have a movie that will open in US theatres on Friday and delighted that it was with such a stellar talent.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m \u201chumbled that I\u2019m getting to put Matthew back in cinema after six and a half years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES – Matthew McConaughey had plenty of reasons to select \u201cThe Rivals of Amziah King\u201d, a honey-themed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[193087,250267,321,250268,93,164944,61,129023,60,48448,3527,193088],"class_list":["post-591968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-andrew-patterson","tag-angelina-lookingglass","tag-celebrities","tag-cinema-comeback","tag-entertainment","tag-film-release","tag-ie","tag-indie-film","tag-ireland","tag-kurt-russell","tag-matthew-mcconaughey","tag-the-rivals-of-amziah-king"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}