Over thirty years ago, Kevin Costner ventured to joined a club of actor-turned-directors with Dances With Wolves, and it became a Best Picture winner alongside many other accolades. Costner continued his filmmaking career following that with the ill-received 1997 movie The Postman and 2003’s action western Open Range. All this time later, and in the midst of starring in the Paramount Network series Yellowstone, Costner is finally resuming his director title for an upcoming movie called Horizon.
Kevin Costner is getting ready to star, produce and finance another period Western that has been a “longtime passion project” of his after recently finding success as Yellowstone‘s lead. Horizon will span 15 years of pre and post-Civil War expansion along with the settlement of the American West, per Deadline’s report. While speaking to the trade, Costner spoke about his upcoming movie with these words:
America’s expansion into the west was one that was fraught with peril and intrigue from the natural elements, to the interactions with the indigenous peoples who lived on the land, and the determination and at many times ruthlessness of those who sought to settle it. Horizon tells the story of that journey in an honest and forthcoming way, highlighting the points of view and consequences of the characters’ life and death decisions.
Kevin Costner will be casting for Horizon starting this upcoming month ahead of getting to work on the production in Utah in late August. Back in 2016, Costner spoke about a nondescript Western he was working on that was about “10 hours long” and he wanted to tie together like the famous French films Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring. He said he was contemplating three or four movies out of his idea, and considering Horizon spans 15 years, this seems to be that very project.
Six years later, it’s possible Kevin Costner has been talked out of making a 10-hour long movie, or perhaps it will be the start of a saga. For the moment, we don’t know a ton about what to expect from the actor’s next directing project other than it being a sweeping Western epic. Costner’s 1990 masterpiece, Dances With Wolves, which found a resurgence on Netflix last year, was three hours long and set around the same time period.
Kevin Costner currently stars in Yellowstone as John Dutton, who is part of a ranching family in Montana. The series wrapped its fourth season early this year (and left us with plenty of big questions) and a fifth season on the way. Costner recently celebrated his 67th birthday and his career is showing no signs of slowing down. We’ll be excited to follow the production process of Horizon this year as things get started. While we wait, check out what upcoming 2022 movies are headed our way.