Kevin Costner is chasing his western dream. Will audiences follow?
Oh, to have Kevin Costner’s confidence.
Few actors in the final chapter of their careers would turn down a consistent $1 million per episode payout to pursue the whims of the Wild West. Yet there are few actors who are as one-sided as Costner.
The 69-year-old star and director, who has made a career of taking the path less traveled, has embarked on what many would call a reckless quest to transform his long-bubbling story of the settlement of the West after the Civil War in four cinema films. It’s a venture he undertakes without any real support from Hollywood: no legacy studio wanted to finance his sprawling epic. And it’s one that comes at a great personal cost, both financially, with Costner investing $38 million of his own money, and professionally, with his dedication to the films that caused a rift with the producers of “Yellowstone,” the television franchise that revived his career.
There is no guarantee that his grand experiment will succeed. “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1‘ will debut Friday. And in an unprecedented move, “Chapter 2” will hit theaters less than two months later, on Aug. 16. Both features cost around $100 million. Warner Bros. will release the films in the United States, Canada and some international territories under a service agreement that calls for Costner to pay for marketing costs while also working with the studio to create marketing materials. (Warner Bros. has a small financial stake in the production of the first two films, according to a representative who was asked not to speak on the record.) The structure of the deal means that if the films backfire, there will be little financial downside for the studio but a lot of risk for Costner himself.
But as he puts it: letting go was never an option. He first commissioned the script in 1988. He almost made it with Disney, but the two sides couldn’t agree on a budget and the film fell through. Instead of adapting one film to the parameters of potential buyers, he and screenwriter Jon Baird then changed four. To partially finance the films, he mortgaged a 10-acre stretch of undeveloped coastline in Santa Barbara, which he has owned since 2006.
“It’s hard not to love me anymore. I don’t,” he told reporters during the online debut of its teaser trailer in February, adding, “A lot of people know I’m a bit of a stubborn person or something. When no one wanted to do the first one, I had this bright idea to do four. So I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” (Costner declined to be interviewed for this story.)
Costner has been dreaming of ‘Horizon’ since his breakthrough role in ‘Silverado’ in 1985. This was before Costner gambled big on himself in ‘Dancing with wolves“, the 1990 epic that he pursued in lieu of the hefty salary he would have received to play Jack Ryan in “The Hunt for Red October,” an offer he described to GQ magazine as “more money than he ever had seen’. (The role went to Alec Baldwin.)
Instead, he gambled $3 million of his own money on his ability to direct a film about a Civil War soldier’s relationship with a band of the Lakota tribe, the film which grossed $424 million worldwide and seven Won Oscars, including best film and best director. Prices. Costner returned to directing in 1997 with “The Postman,” an R-rated post-apocalyptic drama that also required him to invest his own money. That film, which cost $80 million, only made $20 million at the box office and landed him in director’s prison for quite a few years.
And so it was with Costner, who continued to toil in Hollywood with increasing and decreasing success. In 2015, he also invested personally in the drama ‘Black or White’, a film that The New York Times described as ‘timid but honorable’; it earned $21.7 million at the box office. Costner earned $9 million and starred in the film opposite Octavia Spencer.
But “Horizon” may be his biggest gamble yet.
The film was set to go into production as Costner was again on the rise, this time at the top of Taylor Sheridan’s “Yellowstone” franchise: he played the prickly patriarch John Dutton on the most popular show on television. “Yellowstone” was something of a unicorn itself, growing its audience during its last four and a half seasons on the Paramount Network and earning Costner his third Golden Globe. But that relationship has now come to an acrimonious end over a scheduling dispute between Costner and Sheridan over the “Horizon” films.
Sheridan told The Hollywood Reporter he was “disappointed” Due to Costner’s departure, adding that “it shortens the closure of his character.” Paramount said in a statement: “While we had hoped to continue working with him, unfortunately we were unable to find a window that worked for him, all of the other talent, and our production needs to move forward together.” A studio source said Costner was offered a shortened schedule, along with a hefty payday, but responded with only “unrealistic and ever-changing demands.”
A spokesman for Costner said he had no comment.
When the second half of season 5 airs in November, Costner will not be part of the Dutton ensemble. He made it official in one video posted on Instagram On Friday, he said that in the “long year and a half” of working on “Horizon,” he realized he wouldn’t be able to continue with “Yellowstone,” which he described as “that beloved series that I love and that I know you love .”
Instead, he’ll be back in Utah filming the third part of “Horizon.” It’s unclear if he has enough money to finish the film and if anyone will bail him out, especially if the first film doesn’t sell well.
“It’s one of those strange things where it’s not about the money, it’s about believing in your story and the movie you want to make,” said actor Danny Huston, who starred opposite Costner in “Yellowstone” and has been cast as a Civil War colonel in the “Horizon” saga. “But it’s about the money,” he added with a laugh, “because the dream is rich.”
Costner debuted “Chapter 1” at Cannes last month, where it received a standing ovation. Still, critics weren’t exactly kind in the early reviews. Time magazine called it “curiously unremarkable.” The Hollywood Reporter considered the nearly three-hour film an “awkward slog,” noting “the uncomfortably long time” required to add context to the portrayal of the few Native American characters.
The film is expected to gross $12 million, an unpromising start for an expensive film. Insiders at Warner Bros. however, believe that the tracking services are not reaching Costner’s audience for these films, which is primarily older men living in the middle of the country.
Executives at the studio, which is selling tickets for the first two chapters at once, are hopeful that its marketing efforts will reach audiences who don’t often go to theaters. And they’re counting on the long-term return of “Yellowstone” to fuel more interest in “Horizon.”
Huston, for one, is excited about the prospect. “If this works, it opens up an interesting world for filmmakers, because we can do these sagas,” he said. “I think this has all the sense of adventure and excitement and a visually epic quality that can entice audiences to see it, and then see Chapter 2, and then Chapter 3.”
Costner himself remains undaunted.
“I’m going to head west again and push a rock up the hill trying to make the third one,” he said during the trailer event. “I know I’m a bit of a joke, but maybe it’s even funny to look at me because it’s like, ‘Wow, I wonder when he’s ever going to stop digging.’
“I’m extremely pleased in my own life that God allowed me to get these first two done,” he added. “If I get struck by lightning, who knows what will happen. I’ve gone west anyway.”
