McConaughey Gets Variety Award, Recalls Murderer Catch
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- Matthew McConaughey received Variety's Legend & Groundbreaker Award at Little Rock's Filmland festival Friday and screened his comeback film 'The Rivals of Amziah King' in an on-stage conversation with filmmaker Jeff Nichols, a Filmland co-founder.
- 'The Rivals of Amziah King' marks McConaughey's first film in five years, directed by Andrew Patterson and co-starring debut actress Angelina LookingGlass; Variety's critic called his honey-maker role fitting 'like a glove' and 'different from anything he's ever done.'
- Christopher Nolan cast McConaughey in 2014's 'Interstellar' after screening an early cut of 'Mud' via a relationship with producer Aaron Ryder; McConaughey called Nolan 'an absolute general' who is 'first there and last to leave' and 'has a great sense of humor without trying to be funny.'
- McConaughey's Dec. 2, 1992 'Unsolved Mysteries' reenactment depicted Marine Larry Dean Dickens, killed by Edward Harold Bell in August 1978; viewers recognized Bell, leading to his capture in Panama City on Feb. 14, 1993 by a joint FBI–Panamanian National Police operation.
- McConaughey bragged to the Filmland crowd: 'The "Unsolved Mysteries" episode I did? They caught the guy weeks later — based on what I did.' Bell admitted to 11 murders but was convicted only of Dickens' and died in a Texas prison in 2019 at age 79.
Why it matters: For the 56-year-old McConaughey, the Variety award and first-look screening of 'The Rivals of Amziah King' — his first film in five years — confirm a full reentry into acting after his self-imposed hiatus. The Unsolved Mysteries anecdote reframes a throwaway early credit as a real-world assist to the FBI in catching a fugitive serial killer who'd evaded capture for 14 years.
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