Reviewed by: Nathan Watson
Matthew McConaughey’s Alabama honey from The Rivals of Amziah King is on sale
Reading time: 2 minutes
Alabama beekeepers trained a bee-allergic A-lister — and now you can taste the honey that was actually in the movie.
Irondale-based Foxhound Bee Company and neighboring bee companies, who supplied the bees and trained Matthew McConaughey during the production of The Rivals of Amziah King movie, are selling Alabama honey to promote the movie.
“We’re selling them through the production company Black Bear, so they’re the ones that have all the rights, the branding and all that kind of stuff. We’re supplying the honey for them. We were the beekeepers in the movie, and the honey that was used in the movie is all Alabama honey.”
Adam Hickman, owner of Foxhound Bee Company
You can buy a limited edition “honey bear” on the Black Bear Pictures website.
McConaughey’s Bee Training
The highly-acclaimed film shot throughout the Birmingham-metro area in the summer of 2023 is a thriller about a beekeeper fending off threats to his honey business.
In his recent appearance on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, McConaughey, who is allergic to bee stings, described what it was like to hold 12,000 bees – without CGI and more importantly not getting stung.
Hickman and his crew (Foxhound, Eastaboga Bee Company, Choctaw Bee Company,) worked on the beekeeping scenes, trained the actors, provided the equipment and consulted on the movie.
“They brought us on to do all of the beekeeping scenes. We ended up training actors how to look like beekeepers; supplied all the bees and did all the really complicated bee scenes. We also ended up providing a lot of the equipment, boxes and extractors.”
Adam Hickman,owner of Foxhound Bee Company
Where to Watch The Rivals of Amziah King in Birmingham
Released August 14, 2026, The Rivals of Amziah King can be seen at: Sidewalk Cinema, AMC The Summit and AMC Vestavia. The film currently scores 89% on Rotten Tomatoes.
