We were wondering where this one would land.
Shot in 2023, Andrew Patterson’s Rivals of Amziah King” will finally be having its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in March. Kurt Russell and Matthew McConaughey star in Patterson’s sophomore effort. A first look image was released, which can be seen above.
‘Amziah King,’ dubbed as a a crime thriller, and set in Oklahoma, follows a man who oversees the premier honey-making operation in town, but the honey game is “ruthless” and everything he has built is soon threatened by the town’s rivals.
Production on the film began in June 2023. The film is one of 39 indie productions, exempt by SAG, that continued shooting during the strike. Reshoots occurred sometime last year.
Patterson premiered his first film, the micro-budgeted “Vast of Night,” at the 2019 Slamdance Film Festival. Amazon acquired distribution rights to the film, premiered it at TIFF and then released it on May 29, 2020 to positive reviews.
Although the budget on ‘Vast of Night’ wasn’t divulged, some reports had the total production cost at just under $500,000. Although I wasn’t a huge fan, there was so much energy, enthusiasm, and a clearcut love for its decades-old influences that many critics praised the film.
Meanwhile, McConaughey hasn’t acted in a movie since 2019 where he starred in three projects: “Serenity,” “The Beach Bum” and “The Gentleman.” ‘Amziah King’ will be his first film in almost six years.