‘Horizon: An American Saga’: The movie Kevin Costner has been trying to make since 1988
Back in Hollywood’s Golden Age from the 1910s to the 1960s, the patriotic western was dominant, producing such iconic stars as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, who would have a considerable impact on the shape of cinema later in the century. Yet, generations later, the western genre has been diminished and reserved only for revisionist arthouse indie flicks directed by the likes of Chloé Zhao, Kelly Reichardt and Jane Campion.
With this being said, the genre remains popular whenever filmmakers and TV executives decide to step into the world of swinging saloon doors and drifting drunkards, with recent hits such as Westworld and Pedro Almodóvar’s Strange Way of Life gaining critical and commercial love. Still, the concept of the big-budget western, headed up by the industry’s biggest names, has largely been lost.
Yet, bouncing over the horizon on his noble steed comes the unlikely Oscar winner Kevin Costner, armed with a new western epic hoping to transport audiences back to the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Horizon: An American Saga is his ambitious project, a four-part epic that chronicles 15 years of the USA in the late 19th century, covering an era before and after the Civil War of 1861-1865.
First commissioning Horizon to be a single movie in 1988, Costner has long been searching for funding for his passion project, even approaching Disney in 2003 after his earlier efforts were denied. Decades later, Horizon is finally a reality for Costner, with the actor personally financing the making of his own film, even taking out a mortgage on his vast house in Santa Barbara, California, to make the movie a reality.
“I’ve mortgaged 10 acres on the water in Santa Barbara where I was going to build my last house,” the actor told Deadline, “But I did it without a thought. It has thrown my accountant into a fucking conniption fit. But it’s my life, and I believe in the idea and the story…At the end of the day, I’m a storyteller, and I went ahead and put my own money into it. I’m not a very good businessman, so, scratch your head, if you will. I don’t know why, but I have not let go of this one”.
There are, indeed, far less qualified people to take on the mammoth task of this four-part epic, with Costner having dominated the Academy Awards in 1991 with his western Dances With Wolves. Winning ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’ and five other Oscars, the film, which told the story of a lieutenant during the Civil War who befriends a nearby Sioux settlement, remains a classic of the western genre.
Costner’s not the only Hollywood veteran putting his life savings on the line in the name of cinema either, with Francis Ford Coppola also due to release his longtime passion project Megalopolis after putting $100million into the movie himself. This year is, indeed, the year of cinematic gambles and long-awaited American epics.
