‘The Rivals of Amziah King’ By Andrew Patterson.
Matthew McConaughey is set to lead in crime thriller “The Rivals of Amziah King”. Written and directed by Andrew Patterson (The Vast of Night). Set in rural Oklahoma, McConaughey is set to play the titular role of Amziah king. BlackBear is financing the film, and launched international sales at Cannes 2023. WME Independent is repping the U.S. rights. HeyDay Films are producing.
Supporting cast was announced by BlackBear in June; joining Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey (Interstellar), is Kurt Russell (The Thing), Cole Sprouse (Riverdale), Owen Teague (IT), Scott Shepherd (Killers of the Flower Moon), Rob Morgan, Tony Revolori (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Jake Horowitz and Angelina LookingGlass — making her film debut.
Synopsis: Kateri’s life takes a tragic turn as she loses her mother and leaves foster care. Reuniting with her former foster parent, Amziah, changes everything. He becomes her mentor, revealing hidden skills. When a devastating situation arises, Kateri relies on her newfound strength to seek justice. The plot is described as a character-focused crime thriller set against the backdrop of rural Oklahoma.
Black Bear fully financed the picture and produced alongside HeyDay Films (Harry Potter films), and G.E.D. Media. Black Bear is representing the project for international sales, with WME Independent handling U.S. rights.
Angelina LookingGlass landed the co-lead opposite McConaughey following a worldwide search.
Filming occurred in Alabama during the 2023 strikes, in which SAG-AFTRA granted the filmmakers an interim agreement to allow principal photography to occur during the strike. In, August 2023, it was announced that filming wrapped in Alabama. The film completed post-production in June 2024.
This feature is the second from writer/director Patterson. He premiered his sci-fi mystery “The Vast of Night” at 2019 Slamdance Film Festival, and won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. Eventually Amazon Studios acquired the distribution rights to the film and premiered it at TIFF and then released it in May 2020 at drive-in theatres across the U.S.
The film won Patterson the Breakthrough Director Award at the Gotham Awards.
This will mark McConaughey’s first lead role in four years. he hasn’t acted since 2019, where he starred in three films; “Serenity”, “The Beach Bum” and Guy Ritchie’s “The Gentleman”. he had a small cameo in this years “Deadpool & Wolverine” as one of the Deadpools.
The cinematographer is M.I. Littin-Menz, who worked with Patterson on “The Vast of Night”.
