It’s no lie that Kevin Costner has a soft spot for a Western. Whether it be modern day with Yellowstone or set in the time of the Old West, Costner’s latest film epic explores the latter. He’s back in the director’s chair for New Line Cinema’s ambitious project, “Horizon: An American Saga” Chapters One and Two. This sprawling tale dives deep into the Civil War era and the settlement of the American West, a story too big to fit into a single film.
With Costner co-writing alongside Jon Baird, the movie promises to capture the essence of the Old West’s allure and the struggles faced by its inhabitants. Set against the backdrop of the Civil War, audiences can expect an emotional journey through a divided nation, exploring what it means to be American.
“When no one wanted to make the first one, I got the bright idea to make four,” Costner said dryly during a moderated discussion about the Horizon trailer. “So I don’t know what’s wrong with me. But I wanted it to step away from what we usually see in Westerns where there’s a town that’s already there. No one knows how [the town] came to be. There’s a guy comes in off the horizon, if you will. We don’t know much about him, except that he has some skills he’d like to put behind him and this town ends up needing those stills desperately … Too often, it’s just a convenience for the hero guy to knock down a dumb guy.”
He continued, “We have a lot of Westerns that aren’t good too because they get simplified [but] this isn’t Disneyland. These are real lives. People just making their way, women just trying to keep their families clean and fed … I’m drawn to that. I’m always gonna get to my gunfight, but I’m drawn to the little things that people had to endure. So to me, Horizon was worth holding on to because I just felt like I wanted to tell it. It grew and it grew and it grew until suddenly I realized that I just had to make it, and I had to look to myself financially to do it — which is not the smartest thing. But I count on the movie speaking louder than anything I can say.”
The star-studded cast, including Sienna Miller and Sam Worthington, brings this epic saga to life. Costner, returning to the director’s chair for the first time since “Open Range,” reunites with familiar faces behind the scenes to create a captivating cinematic experience.
There’s no word when “Horizon: An American Saga” will hit theatres in Aus but we can gather from its U.S. release, the first film might arrive sometime in June and Chaper Two sometime in August!
