Cowboy Costner.
Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
Kevin Costner is taking on the next frontier in four parts and in four different roles: director, co-writer, producer, and leading star. His newest film, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, put out a major, fire-filled trailer on May 17. It follows the conquest of the American West during the Civil War “through the lens of families, friends, and foes” of the 1800s, which should appease those going through Yellowstone withdrawal. Not that they’re competing. “This is something I’ve had a long time,” Costner said recently in a big, myth-dispelling interview. “Taylor read that script three years earlier when he was contemplating other writers.” Costner explained to Variety that he was inspired by the nation’s desire to continue out West, “our national appetite was to be satisfied at the at the disadvantage to those who had been there and flourished and were living in their own way.” “I don’t know that I’ve ever come to terms with that myself,” he said. “I don’t know that I’m ashamed or embarrassed, but I want to project what really happened. There was a great injustice occurred in the West. But it doesn’t minimize the courage it took for my ancestors to actually cut loose and go there… It’s our history.” Click here to find the latest trailer for Costner’s latest ride.
Yep. Costner is hoping back onto the directing horse for all four films for Horizon— his last directorial film was Open Range in 2003. He’s writing them with Jon Baird, who he worked with on National Parks. Initially, he was worried someone was going to swoop in on his idea; he told Variety, “I just thought, ‘I don’t want anybody stepping into whatever I’m trying to do,’ so I called it Horizon and said it was written by my son just to disguise it when it went to the Writers Guild.”
A lot of people are joining Costner on the wagon. Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Fahey, Will Patton, Tatanka Means, Owen Crow Shoe, Ella Hunt, and Jamie Campbell Bower are all signed on in undisclosed roles for the first part of the saga.
A big trailer for Horizon dropped on May 17, and it is low on clear plot details (and on sideburns) but high on ominous statements. “In these territories, men’ll come try you,” Jamie Campbell Bower intones. “They will take from you until you are wiped clean from this land.” And if the ominous statements don’t sell you, maybe all the fire and explosions will. Boom goes the Horizon trailer.
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 comes to theaters on June 28. Happy Pride?
This post has been updated.
