The last time Kevin Costner directed and starred in an ambitious epic, it almost ruined his career
History has a funny way of repeating itself, and Kevin Costner could be staring that sentiment squarely in the face as he continues to dedicate himself to Horizon: An American Saga. It’s a mammoth undertaking that could realistically have the same effect on his career as The Postman, which wouldn’t be a good thing.
In the 1990s, Costner was flying high as one of the biggest and most bankable leading men in Hollywood, anchoring a string of critical darlings and commercial smash hits. When he tried his hand at directing for the first time, Dances with Wolves landed him a pair of Academy Awards for ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’, indicating that the next stage in his career would be equally successful.
Seven years later, his sophomore feature didn’t just knock him off his perch near the top of the A-list, but it almost torpedoed his mainstream career entirely. A self-indulgent slog of a vanity project that positioned director and star Costner as the saviour of the human race, The Postman bombed thunderously at the box office and won all five of the Golden Raspberry Awards it was nominated for.
While Costner did make a stellar return behind the camera when he pulled double duty on Open Range in 2003, he was nowhere near being a hot property. Fittingly, it was the Western where he enjoyed his most notable outings after winning a Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe for his performance in the miniseries Hatfield & McCoys, but his resurgence didn’t begin in earnest until he boarded the cast of Yellowstone.
Taylor Sheridan’s drama became one of the most-watched and talked-about shows on television, leading Costner’s profile to rise to heights it hadn’t enjoyed since its heyday. In a bold move that could yet turn out to be a disastrous one, depending on how things shake out, he decided to drop out of Yellowstone in order to focus on Horizon. Money isn’t the main driving force, but it goes without saying that he might regret turning his back on John Dutton, a character that earned him over a million dollars per episode.
Written, directed, produced, and partly financed by Costner, Horizon is planned to encompass at least four features that tell the story of how the American West shaped an entire country. The first two chapters are in the can and scheduled to hit cinemas weeks apart in June and August of 2024, but the third instalment has yet to wrap principal photography because its creator keeps running out of money.
Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis raised eyebrows after it was funded entirely by its director, but Costner told Yahoo that if he gets his way, Horizon will exceed those numbers. “If I make the fourth one, it will be over,” he said of potentially matching Coppola’s $120million investment. “People don’t know what the reality is. ‘Oh, you know what, I’m happier that these two have been made’. And then I know by hook or by crook, I’m going to make three. And by hook or by crook, I’m going to make four. The truth isn’t really that important to a lot of people.”
That comes despite his own admission that the third and fourth films haven’t secured funding, and the qualities he looks for in a potential investor could speak volumes about how this will turn out. “I need somebody that’s impulsive, is emotional, has money, and wants to West,” he suggested. “And it’s like, ‘Let’s see how much of a gambler you are’. Because everything I have is in the movie.”
For most people, the idea of producing, directing, and starring in an ambitious and expensive epic that almost ruined their careers is something that can only happen once. For Costner, he’s decided that he wants to spend his own fortune seeing if he can avoid doing it twice, and the jury remains firmly out on that front.
