Matthew McConaughey is generating excitement in Alabama as his new movie begins filming in the Birmingham area. The Oscar-winning actor was spotted on set Friday at J&J Grocery & Deli in Bessemer, filming “The Rivals of Amziah King,” a crime thriller written and directed by Andrew Patterson.

Folks in the Bessemer area, including Devin Glasgow Carter and Melissa Poskarbiewicz, were scoping out the movie set on Friday and posting photos on social media. (See photos provided by Carter and Poskarbiewicz in the gallery at the top of this post, many of which show McConaughey in action.)

Although the movie is set in Oklahoma, locations in and around Birmingham will be used for filming during a seven-week period in June and July, according to Jessica Moody, director of programs and operations for Film Birmingham and Create Birmingham.

Principal photography was set to begin on June 12, according to Moody and Facebook notices from Goleman Casting. However, it appears that filming has started a few days early. On Thursday, Goleman posted a casting notice for Friday for the Birmingham area, seeking background actors to play patrons at a restaurant called the Dead Dino.

J&J Grocery & Deli, on the backroads of Bessmer, evidently is standing in for the Dead Dino. The little red-brick store at the intersection of Dickey Springs Road and Pocahontas Road has plenty of character — not to mention “what many consider one of the best hamburgers in Alabama,” according to Bob Carlton of AL.com.

MORE: The little country store with one of the best burgers in Alabama

From what we hear, J&J is one of about 70 locations in the greater Birmingham area that will be used during the filming, so there should be plenty of opportunities for McConaughey-spotting this summer. Also, there seem to be many opportunities for Alabama people to appear in the movie.

A May 18 Facebook notice from Goleman Casting said “The Rivals of Amziah King” was seeking background actors and extras for a wide variety of roles. These roles ranged in age from children to seniors, and included truck drivers, nurses, jail guards, church attendees, elementary school pupils and more. About 1,600 submissions for the background roles came in via email, Goleman Casting said Friday on Facebook.

McConaughey was announced as the star of “The Rivals of Amziah King” on May 8 by Black Bear Pictures, an independent studio based in California and London. Reports at the time described the movie as a “deeply atmospheric, character-focused crime thriller set against the unique backdrop of remote Oklahoma.”

McConaughey, 53, is a household name in the entertainment world. He’s known for movies such as “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Dazed and Confused,” “A Time to Kill,” “The Lincoln Lawyer,” “Magic Mike,” “Mud,” “Free State of Jones,” “Interstellar” and more. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and other accolades for his role in 2013′s “Dallas Buyers Club.” McConaughey also earned acclaim for his work in the first season of the TV series “True Detective.”

(Note: Friday, which appears to be the first day of filming for “Amziah King,” also marks McConaughey’s wedding anniversary with Camila Alves McConaughey. The two were married on June 9, 2012, in Austin, Texas, according to People magazine. The actor posted an Instagram video with his wife on Friday to mark the occasion, saying “Romance is not so much where you are, but the tunes are where you are, and who you’re with.” It’s unclear where the video was filmed, but McConaughey said they were sitting on a “cozy little bench” under “a canopy in front of the lobby.”)

This won’t be McConaughey’s first visit to Alabama. He filmed scenes for 2006′s “Failure to Launch” in Cherokee and Etowah counties, according to a 2005 report by The Gadsden Times. The actor went rock climbing at Cherokee Rock Village in Leesburg and filmed a mountain-biking scene on a nearby ridge, a producer for the movie said.

McConaughey also was spotted in Mobile in February 2015, around the time he filmed “Free State of Jones” in Louisiana.

Director/writer Patterson, 40, made his directing debut with 2019′s “The Vast of Night,” a sci-fi movie that earned applause at the Slamdance Film Festival, where it won an audience award for best narrative feature. “The Vast of Night” moved on to success at other film festivals, and won several awards from regional festivals and film critics circles, according to IMDb.

It’s unclear if Patterson’s script for “The Rivals of Amziah King” will bear any resemblance to a previous project with that title, which he evidently filmed, at least in part, about five years ago in Navarro County, Texas. A report by the Corsicana Daily Sun said Patterson filmed scenes there in August 2018 for a movie called “The Rivals of Amziah King,” and described its storyline this way:

“The film is based upon a woman named Kateri, who is played by Beckah Boykin, that leaves her small town life behind for bigger ventures. After learning her grandfather has gone missing, she returns and begins the business of beekeeping, fighting her way to the top, while she searches for him.”

Patterson was the writer and director of the 2018 indie film, the Corsicana Daily Sun said. Lauren Bedsole and Adam Dietrich were mentioned as producers. (Dietrich was one of the producers for “The Vast of Night,” according to IMDb, and had an acting role in Patterson’s 2019 movie.)

A handful of videos from actors auditioning for the 2018 movie can be found on YouTube, but there’s no evidence that an earlier version of “The Rivals of Amziah King” was ever completed or released.

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