Giddy-up folks, cause it seems that Kevin Costner‘s plans to complete his massive, four-part Western epic, “Horizon: An American Saga,” have not gone the way of the horse-and-buggy and are still very much in motion.
While speaking this past weekend at Deadline Contenders Los Angeles, Costner gave an update on where the project stands after Warner Bros. unceremoniously pulled the August release of “Chapter 2” following the tepid response to “Chapter 1” in June.
“I’m hoping, I’m dreaming, I’m meeting all the billionaires that we all hear about — they’re all hiding in the shadows,” Costner said, receiving a laugh from the crowd.
Despite this commitment, Costner admitted that he has not seen a light at the end of the tunnel thus far. Even so, he refuses to give up on this project, as he’s already spent almost 40 years bringing it to fruition.
“I don’t know how I’m going to do it,” said Costner of getting the funds to make “Chapter 3,” “but I’m going to make it and then I’m going to make the fourth one. And if you want to say ’the end’ at that point, then that’s the end.”
For the multi-hyphenate talent, bringing “Horizon” to the big screen carries more than just financial importance, but instead serves as somewhat of a spiritual mission. Costner expressed how he feels like he simply has no choice but to bring his vision to life, if for no other reason than to prove it truly was all worthwhile.
“It’s my own private UFO,” Costner said at Deadline Contenders Los Angeles. “I’ve seen it, and I will never forget it, and I chase it as long as I can… I will figure out a way to bring you ‘3’ and ‘4’, because you’ve gone to ‘1’ and you’re gonna go to ‘2,’ and we’re all gonna go west together.”
“Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1” had its premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it received an over 10-minute standing ovation, though reviews were not necessarily as kind. In IndieWire’s review, Ryan Lattanzio wrote of the film, “Told across four interwoven tales in and around the territories that became Wyoming, Montana, and Kansas, ‘Horizon’ gets its title from a fictional pioneer settlement in the 1860s that’s stomped out an Apache tribe now battling to get back their land. But their patted-on inclusion at all feels more like a committee-driven, gun-to-the-head corrective rather than an organic necessity of the story. Costner is far more interested in the prosaic plights of the white settlers — and ultimately in himself — than the cultures they erased.”
Warner Bros. intended on releasing “Chapter 2” in August, but pulled the release after the lackluster box office on “Chapter 1.” Instead, the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and has not screened anywhere else since.
“Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1” is currently available to stream on Max.
