Kevin Costner reveals and explains Horizon, the Western epic he ditched Yellowstone to make
polygon.comKevin Costner could have phoned it in. Yellowstone, TV maven Taylor Sheridan’s neo-Western melodrama Paramount Network, was riding high in the ratings going into 2023, and Costner had a strong platform in the leading role. But during negotiations for season 6, the 69-year-old actor walked away. He had other dreams: specifically, directing a four-part Western epic titled Horizon. Costner has blamed creative differences with Paramount and Sheridan over reported flaring tensions on the Yellowstone set, but ultimately, as he said in a recent divorce proceeding, he left over scheduling conflicts — with his own movie. (Next time you don’t want to follow through on previously made plans, feel free to use this same excuse.)
Soon we’ll see whether the risk and subsequent sensational Hollywood kerfuffle pays off; Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 both hit theaters this summer.
Like Dancing with Wolves or Open Range, Horizon puts Costner back in the saddle as both director and star. The double feature’s first trailer promises more of his particular Western mode: sweeping vistas, raw depictions of the West, gunslinger shootouts, contemplations on the nature of man, and plenty of horses. But Costner hopes the breadth of his story will offer a new perspective on the American West. Or at least the American Western.
“We have a lot of Westerns that aren’t good because they get too simplified, and Westerns are, in fact, complicated,” Costner said at a trailer launch event earlier this month. The filmmaker embraces the man-comes-to-town formula of the West — “when it’s done right, we never forget it, but too often, it’s just a convenience for a hero guy to knock down a dumb guy.” But he intends for Horizon to go deeper. “This isn’t Disneyland. These were real lives. People just making their way, women just trying to keep their families clean, fed — [they] basically worked to death. Women’s lives were short, all they did was work. And so I’m drawn to that. I’m always
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