“Horizon: An American Saga,” Kevin Costner‘s wildly ambitious, sprawling, risky and quite possibly foolhardy two-part Western rode into CinemaCon on Tuesday.
The films, which will premiere this summer, were partially financed by Costner, who mortgaged his ranch to help raise the money for the $100 million epic. “Hopefully the people come and they keep coming and they binge your theaters,” Costner told cinema operators at Warner Bros. presentation. “There’s something in me that wanted to make this movie, and I never make one that I think won’t blow up.”
And he hinted he’s not done yet, revealing there are even more chapters on, well, the horizon. No matter how the final film ends up, Costner gets points for sheer persistence. After all, he’s been trying to get the film off the ground for decades, starting in 1988 and then trying to shoot it again in 2003 without success. “In 2012, I decided to write four more of the one I couldn’t make,” he said.
The Oscar-winning Costner stars in the films, as well as directed, produced and co-wrote the installments. Warner Bros. is distributing the movies — the first part opens on June 28, while the second chapter premieres on Aug. 16. The film takes place over the course of 15 years on America’s Western frontier, dramatizing the lives of settlers and Indigenous groups in the region.
“There was a promise out here if you were tough enough, you were mean enough, you were resourceful enough you could take what you wanted in America,” Costner said, noting that attitude often meant you “step on people.” By that, he apparently was referencing the Indigenous communities that lived in the West. “I don’t pass judgment,” Costner said.
Costner shared footage from both parts which featured wagon trains, Union troops, feuding ranchers, gunfights, tight-lipped lawmen, steely frontier women and sweeping vistas. No expense appears to have been spared by Costner, who is betting it all on audiences’ appetite for a genre that hasn’t been a big crowdpleaser in cinemas for a while, though his “Yellowstone” is one of the most popular shows on television.
“Horizon’s” cast includes Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Tatanka Means, Owen Crow Shoe and Jamie Campbell Bower.
“Horizon: An American Saga” is the fourth film that Costner has directed. His credits include 2003’s “Open Range,” which was a commercial and critical hit, as well as 1990’s “Dances With Wolves,” which won the Oscar for best picture. His other directorial effort, 1997’s post-apocalyptic adventure, “The Postman,” was a box office bomb.
“Horizon” may have also contributed to Costner’s departure from his hit series “Yellowstone.” The show’s producers alleged that Costner had been less available as he devoted more time to shooting “Horizon,” leading to a messy breakup between the star and the ratings juggernaut he headlined.
