Kevin Costner is premiering a film at the Cannes Film Festival for the very first time. That’s already an honor, but it’s made all the sweeter because it’s his passion project, Horizon: An American Saga. Costner has given pretty much everything for this film series—blood, sweat, tears, his marriage, his money (LOTS of his money), and in some ways, his reputation (at least in regards to finishing up Yellowstone). Chapter One launches at Cannes and then premieres in theaters June 28, followed shortly by Chapter Two on August 16. For now, you can try to get a sense of whether it was all worth it in the new trailer released today.
Horizon is indeed epic in scale, a sprawling ensemble film with good guys and bad guys and big brawls and beautiful vistas. Per the Cannes description, Costner “chronicles the incredible epic journey of the expansion of the American West, before and after the Civil War. Between the Native Americans who saw their lands getting colonized and those who were determined to settle there, sometimes at any cost, history is being written. In a flamboyant fresco where multiple destinies intertwine, dreams and hopes face obstacles and cruelty to offer a cinematic spectacle of exceptional scope and emotional depth.”
Costner spoke at length about working on the film and bringing it to Cannes (and defended himself against allegations that he was at fault for Yellowstone stalling in a recent Deadline interview. Since he’s funding the Cannes trip on his own dime, he decided to take his female actors (Ella Hunt, Sienna Miller, Abbey Lee, Isabelle Fuhrman, and Wasé Chief) because “They’re never celebrated enough.” At the time, he was still tinkering with the film’s final cut. “I screened this movie at 3:15. First one was 3:52 and at first I didn’t know how to get five minutes out of that. Then I took it to 3:29, then 3:24, then I got it to 3:15. I screened that in Vegas, and then got down to 3:06. I didn’t think it had an inch more to go. Then I dropped beneath three hours. Got to 2:50, now I’m at 2:45, but I’m going to put some back,” he said. “ I do think about all this, because I own it. Would I like a screen time that allowed me an extra show each day? Nobody would like that more than me.”
Having invested so much of his own money into the series (he’s set to begin shooting chapters three and four later this month, which he believes will push him “over $100 million”), Costner said he has to consider not just the initial box office but the long term. “A lot of people that like my movies, they can’t get to a theater, and they’re waiting for that moment. You can’t make your film for the opening weekend. You have to make it for its life,” he opined. “So I’ll go to Cannes, it’s a great honor, then do Jimmy Kimmel, and then I’ll fly to my set and start directing.”