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Watch Matthew McConaughey Return to the Big Screen in the Bluegrass-and-Honey Drama ‘The Rivals of Amziah King’ Trailer
Matthew McConaughey returns to theaters in The Rivals of Amziah King, a rural drama about bluegrass, beekeeping and revenge.
Matthew McConaughey is headed back to movie theaters for the first time since 2019, and the first look at The Rivals of Amziah King suggests he is doing it with a rural American fable built around bluegrass, beekeeping, and revenge.
The upcoming indie, which co-stars Kurt Russell, is McConaughey’s first big screen effort since The Gentlemen, Guy Ritchie’s 2019 drama, and it arrives after the actor appeared in the 2025 Apple TV+ film The Lost Bus, about the 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California. This one, though, is built for the theater screen. The movie world premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2025 and is set for release on Aug. 14.
Written and directed by Andrew Patterson, who made The Vast of Night, the film also stars Cole Sprouse, Angelina LookingGlass and Jake Horowitz. The official synopsis places the story in the “deep backwoods” of rural Oklahoma, where McConaughey’s Amziah King leads a “bluegrass-playing band of misfits” while running “the premier honey-making operation in town.”
That setup gives the trailer a lot to work with. Over the two-minute preview, Amziah appears to be juggling family tension, a growing business and a rivalry that looks like it could turn ugly fast. There are jam sessions, scenes of him reconnecting with his daughter, and preparations for a major honey harvest. Then comes the theft of his prized honey crop, a turn that pushes LookingGlass’ character to vow revenge and try to bring the “liquid gold” back home.
The synopsis adds that Amziah’s estranged foster daughter unexpectedly returns, giving him a chance to rebuild a family connection and create a business together. But, as the film makes clear, the honey trade is not exactly a friendly one. His rivals threaten to destroy everything he has built, and the trailer teases a showdown that seems to pit McConaughey against Russell.
After nearly seven years away from the big screen, McConaughey is returning with a role that leans into the kind of offbeat, deeply local American storytelling that festival crowds tend to latch onto. Whether The Rivals of Amziah King lands as a bruising family drama, a backwoods hangout movie, or something in between, the trailer makes one thing plain: fans have been waiting a while to see him back in this lane.
