{"id":564911,"date":"2026-08-10T18:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T18:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/564911\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T18:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T18:02:13","slug":"inside-the-scrappy-film-that-brought-matthew-mcconaughey-back-to-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/564911\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Scrappy Film That Brought Matthew McConaughey Back to Films"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tNo matter which way you look at it, The Rivals of Amziah King will hit select theaters this Friday feeling very long-awaited. The star, Oscar<\/a> winner Matthew McConaughey<\/a>, chose the indie as the one to bring him back to acting after a five-year hiatus from live-action productions. The director, Andrew Patterson, spent years developing the project as the follow-up to his celebrated 2019 debut, The Vast of Night. And then there\u2019s the movie itself \u2014 which shot back in 2023, finally premiered at South by Southwest<\/a> in the spring of 2025, and a year and a half later, is at last set for release via its production company and nascent distributor, Black Bear. Patterson declines to say much about the delay, except to imply: This release feels hard-earned.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat delay also explains why McConaughey has had other projects that filmed later on, like Paul Greengrass\u2019 Oscar-nominated The Lost Bus<\/a>, already reach the public. But watch Amziah King and the actor\u2019s fresh energy remains unmistakable. The Texas native, who\u2019d taken a break from Hollywood to focus on writing several books, gives a magnetic performance as the film\u2019s titular honeymaker, born-again Christian and bluegrass musician \u2014 charming and mysterious and suffused with longing. He\u2019s paired opposite a breakout star in Angelina LookingGlass, portraying Kateri, who lived with Amziah as his foster daughter for a few years before life pulled them apart. In adulthood and in crisis, she\u2019s drawn back to him.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat only begins to describe the wild ride of The Rivals of Amziah King, which digs deep into the logistics (and underbelly) of the honey business, the texture of life in rural Oklahoma, the ways in which a narrative can turn on its head in an instant. Indeed, there are twists aplenty in Patterson\u2019s sophomore feature, both in what happens in the story and in how the filmmaker chooses to tell it. There\u2019s no sense in giving away any more. But after so many years of waiting, Patterson and McConaughey have plenty to say about it all.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tOwen Teague with Matthew McConaughey in The Rivals of Amziah King.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m curious how you\u2019re feeling now that release is finally around the corner. It\u2019s been three years since you shot this, right?<\/p>\n

\n\tANDREW PATTERSON Yeah. There was a good chunk of time from a post standpoint and then an even longer chunk of time from the moment that the company that financed it decided to become the studio to distribute it. I was very, very glad and honored that they wanted to start up a whole company to put things into theaters because that was overdue.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s an ambitious, very specific conceit for a movie. What was the genesis and how did it get to Matthew from there?<\/p>\n

\n\tPATTERSON It was something that I wanted to go out and make quickly after I shot Vast of Night. I looked around at the resources and people I had access to, and one of my closest friends owned a honey plant. I wanted to make a movie about a Native American female that takes over a narrative and essentially becomes the protagonist. It literally came from what I had access to and who I knew and what I wanted to make, inside my own resources and network. We went through the pandemic, and that slowed down the direction on this one. I didn\u2019t want to make a movie with a whole lot of social distancing and parameters and things that made my filmmaking difficult. So I ended up being slower to pull this one out and go out and make it. McConaughey wasn\u2019t available initially \u2014 and eventually he was. When he read it, he agreed to do it. And so that\u2019s the short version of how it all got from an idea to the desk of Matthew as it were.<\/p>\n

\n\tMATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY I remember looking at it and just going, \u201cWhat an original time, place, space, and language. Oh man, there\u2019s such an innocence to this.\u201d It was poetic, it was musical, it was funny as shit, and it was a story for the underdogs. I felt like I knew the world and I wanted to be where it was. I saw Andrew\u2019s film, met with him \u2014 we were supposed to meet for one hour, ended up being about three or four hours \u2014 and we met hearts and minds. I said, \u201cLet\u2019s go on the adventure.\u201d And there we went.<\/p>\n

\n\tPATTERSON We actually did have a few other actors interested in the role, awesome actors that would\u2019ve brought a different entire thing to the work. You know how there\u2019s a list? When a movie\u2019s coming together, there\u2019s like, \u201cHere\u2019s who we\u2019d be willing to make it with.\u201d I would say Matthew was almost above the list \u2014 you had two or three that were sort of like, \u201cWell, sure, but they would never do it.\u201d That was sort of where Matthew was, and interestingly enough, another name that took a year to get to it \u2014 it was Denzel [Washington]. He read it and really loved it, but wanted to have some creative control that I didn\u2019t see a way around in the narrative. That was before Matthew was available. Then Matthew became available, and that was not necessarily something I saw coming. He was as perfectly fit for the role as anybody would ever have been, and then became the role in a way that nobody ever could have.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMcConaughey with Angelina LookingGlass.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt that point, Matthew, were you reading many scripts? This is the first movie you\u2019d made in several years.<\/p>\n

\n\tMCCONAUGHEY I was, but nothing had really tickled me or got under my skin like this one did. I wasn\u2019t reading five scripts a day or anything, but I was consciously open and looking for the right thing to do. I said, \u201cYou know what? That\u2019s an original feather in the cap. We can go pull that off.\u201d I just saw him as a king of a man, a father, a shepherd, leader of misfits. Ultimately, and I figured this out after shooting, he was a giver of belonging. It\u2019s really what he did. I loved all that, all those aspects about him and the world that he was in. Not that I choose roles philanthropically or anything, but I was like, \u201cMan, the world could use some innocence, some love, and some humor \u2014 and I could too. So let\u2019s go do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPATTERSON What was fascinating to me was meeting your mom, Matthew, and how much she actually embodied characteristics that you ended up putting into the role of Amziah. The first night I met her, she was like, \u201cI want you to know you belong here. This is something you and Matthew are going to do that\u2019s special.\u201d I remember her grabbing my hands and grabbing me and looking me in the eye and making sure I knew that I belonged.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid you feel your mom in there, Matthew, in Amziah?<\/p>\n

\n\tMCCONAUGHEY In ways I can\u2019t even tell you. I felt my dad too. One of my favorite things about my mom and my dad is they\u2019ll always go for the underdog. They always bring the underdog in, whether it\u2019s adopted kids, whether it\u2019s wayward kids, whether it was the little kid named Rudy who ran track at Uvalde High School, whose legs were six inches shorter than anybody else. And there was no way he could win the mile. But my dad, if he placed, would always take him out to dinner and give him a $20 bill. The only fights I got in high school were taking up for the underdog, taking up for the runt who everyone picked on \u2014 or taking up for my friend Betty, who was the one gothic lesbian in school who people were picking on. I got that from mom and dad. I know I did. My brothers are the same way, looking out for people on the fringes and bringing them up to the front row and putting them in the damn spotlight and making them the star, the center of the circle, and the star of the damn show.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis movie does that, certainly. Andrew, how did you find Angelina LookingGlass?<\/p>\n

\n\tPATTERSON We had an incredible Native American casting director, Angelique Midthunder, come on just to find Kateri. She probably sought out 200, 300 young women. A lot of them, Angelique would\u2019ve seen them submit a tape four, five, six years ago and say, \u201cHey, you\u2019re really special. Keep doing this.\u201d Or she would see somebody on social media and nudge them and say, \u201cYou have a very special look in your eye. Maybe you should consider performing.\u201d She had done that with Angelina LookingGlass. Angelique sent us 100 auditions in the first batch and then maybe another 40 in the second batch, and I told her, \u201cI don\u2019t see anybody yet that\u2019s jumping out at me.\u201d The third group is where Angelina came in. She had the most mesmerizing gaze of anybody I had seen come through. Then Angelina and I worked together over the next three or four months to develop how she would play Kateri.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBehind the scenes of The Rivals of Amziah King.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a big movie for, I\u2019d imagine, a tight budget. What were the conditions of the shoot like \u2014 getting this thing done?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPATTERSON We made a movie out in the elements. We were always around bees. We were always getting shut down for lightning strikes and weather. We were always navigating schedules and availabilities. In the end, you got this big, bright, sunny movie that I think represents a lot of the world that we lived in, that Matthew and I at least lived in, growing up in the middle of the country. Matthew and I got into it. We were in each other\u2019s business 15, 16 hours a day for production.<\/p>\n

\n\tMCCONAUGHEY It\u2019s fair to say it wasn\u2019t a small, contained, independent movie. It had big sets, it had multiple characters. You had to cover a lot of space. Andrew had to make a lot of choices before production, during production, when magic would happen, and all in a limited amount of hours to get it done. One of the great scenes in the movie is when all the musicians come over to Amziah\u2019s house and they make literally what we were just talking about, make Kateri the center of the circle \u2014 the center of attention. That was not really improvised, but it took its own life and built into a beautiful three-act scene in itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cThe language and the stories that he tell all come from my mind,\u201d writer-director Andrew Patterson says of Amziah King. \u201cThe way he uses his words was all my construct.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAndrew, earlier you alluded to the film\u2019s fascinating, surprising storytelling pivot. We won\u2019t spoil anything here, but on a screenwriting level, how did you go about structuring that and considering how it\u2019d play onscreen?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPATTERSON It is something that you have seen done in narrative in particular at large. And by that I mean novels, opera \u2014 you even see it done inside of pop songs where there\u2019s a giant shift. There\u2019s more precedent for narrative fluidity than usually is allowed inside of the studio system. I knew it needed to be an independent film to be able to play with different types of genres and go from shifting perspectives in the narrative. I understand that it\u2019s not going to be for everyone\u2026but I\u2019ve always had more faith in the viewers being able to handle narrative shifts. And let me be very clear. When I wrote this script, I was a million miles away from Hollywood, and maybe 10 million miles away from a Matthew McConaughey. So it was important to me, even after we realized Matthew was going to do the role, to stick to my guns creatively, to never sway from what I knew the movie could do and let it be what it was originally written to be.<\/p>\n

\n\tAndrew, what was the post-production process like? I was really struck by the way you put this together, and clearly a lot went into that part of the filmmaking.<\/p>\n

\n\tPATTERSON I would rather leave that for another day. I\u2019d rather just not talk about that part of it. It was complicated and we got the movie there and that\u2019s what I\u2019m grateful for.<\/p>\n

\n\tOK. Can I ask why?<\/p>\n

\n\tPATTERSON There were different visions, and in the end, mine was the one that won out. So I\u2019m very glad and grateful for that.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKurt Russell<\/a> as Dob McCoy, a power player in the honey business.<\/p>\n

\n\tMatthew, what is the importance and challenge for you of making films of this scale right now? You\u2019ve made movies of all kinds, so it\u2019s interesting to me that you returned to acting in a project like this.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMCCONAUGHEY Am I objective enough to sit there and think, with my career, \u201cOh, this might be the right kind of movie to do at this time?\u201d Yeah. Am I right about all of them? I don\u2019t know, but I\u2019m cognizant of it. \u201cIt could be a good movie, no one\u2019s probably going to see it,\u201d or \u201cThis could be a big movie.\u201d You measure those things all the time, not that we\u2019re always right. I want to go where I can have an experience. Whose shoes can I put on where I want to inhabit that spirit of that character for that amount of time where I\u2019m going to enjoy the work that we do to get it done?<\/p>\n

\n\tIndependent films have always been \u2014 sometimes you get one that pops over on the side, sometimes they don\u2019t. I chose this in place of other movies I could have done for a whole lot more money. When I\u2019m making a creative decision \u2014 we\u2019re talking about the love of underdogs, and with an independent, you\u2019re inherently loving an underdog just to do one. See if you can pull it off. There\u2019s great fun in the tension, and great freedom in the tension, that comes with an independent, when you have less time and less money and you\u2019ve got to get it done. That\u2019s a wild bull to ride. It can\u2019t be overly conscientious. You don\u2019t have the time for it to be. It can\u2019t be overly precious. You ain\u2019t got time for it to be. That\u2019s fun for me because my least favorite place to be on set is in my trailer.<\/p>\n

\n\tAndrew, how do you think the landscape has changed from your first film to this one?<\/p>\n

\n\tPATTERSON To be honest, I\u2019m a little more black-and-white than Matthew is about the importance of independent film. It is the lifeblood of this industry. I believe that you need the smaller things swiping at the tail of the factory. You need people challenging story norms. You need people out there pushing the boundaries. We\u2019re almost in an interesting little renaissance right now after watching the movies that came out in May from A24 and Focus that were small, that outperformed everything else this summer. That feels a little bit to me like Bonnie and Clyde. That feels a little bit to me like Easy Rider. I\u2019ve been saying for years, we need an Easy Rider. We need something to get out and wake everyone up and shake the studios up and start making something that takes chances. I think we might\u2019ve just gotten it with those movies, and I\u2019m excited to be a part of that group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No matter which way you look at it, The Rivals of Amziah King will hit select theaters this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,1017,56297,6808,111,139,69,95086,176545,278031],"class_list":["post-564911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-exclusive","tag-kurt-russell","tag-matthew-mcconaughey","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oscar","tag-south-by-southwest","tag-the-lost-bus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}