Kevin Costner On The Future Of His Ambitious Four-Part ‘Horizon: An American Saga’ Film Series: “I Will Figure Out A Way” — Contenders Los Angeles
Kevin Costner said on Saturday at Deadline Contenders Los Angeles that he’s not giving up on his sprawling four-part Western film series, Horizon: An American Saga, whose Chapter 2 was pulled from a planned August theatrical release after Chapter 1 fell short at the box office in July.
“I’m hoping, I’m dreaming, I’m meeting all the billionaires that we all hear about — they’re all hiding in the shadows,” the Horizon director, star and co-writer said to laughter from the audience near the end of a panel discussion with a trio of collaborators on the movies: cinematographer J. Michael Muro, costume designer Lisa Lovaas and composer John Debney.
From Costner’s Territory Pictures, Horizon marked a return to the Western genre for the star and director of 2003’s Open Range and the star, writer and director of 1991 Best Picture Oscar winner Dances With Wolves. Chapter 1, the first of four planned Horizon films Costner co-wrote with Jon Baird, had an emotional premiere in May at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where an 11-minute 40-second standing ovation brought Costner to tears.
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Chapter 2 premiered in September at the Venice Film Festival after its summer theatrical release was delayed.
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Costner — who recently exited the hit TV series Yellowstone after four seasons — has said before that production for Chapter 3 is underway. On Saturday he didn’t specify how far along, but promised, “I’m going to make 3.”
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“I’m don’t know how I’m going to do it,” he added, “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.”
Costner likened the project, which he first began thinking about in the late 1980s, to pushing the rock of Sisyphus up the mountain and, alternately, to searching for proof of extraterrestrial life.
“It’s my own private UFO,” he said. “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.”
Check back Monday for the panel video.
The presenting sponsor for this year’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles is United for Business. Sponsors are Eyeptizer Eyewear, Final Draft + ScreenCraft, and partners are Four Seasons Maui, 11 Ravens and Robina Benson Design House.
