The Big Picture

Horizon: An American Saga is a sprawling four-feature Western epic that covers a 15-year span of American expansion.
Kevin Costner has been working on this passion project since 1988, premiering the first installment at Cannes Film Festival in 2024 to critical acclaim.
Costner’s dedication to practical filming challenges Hollywood norms, with the first chapter of Horizon being around 2 hours and 51 minutes in length.

For Yellowstone star Kevin Costner, it’s little wonder his Western epic, Horizon: An American Saga, is a sprawling four-feature tale. The writer-director has been working on this story since 1988, he tells Collider’s Steve Weintraub, and being able to premiere the first installment at Cannes Film Festival 2024 has “made a real difference in the life of [the] movie and how it might be received.” Considering Costner’s passion project received an eleven-minute standing ovation, the reception seems strong.

Horizon Chapter 1 sets the stage for Costner’s Western expansion story in just under three hours. It explores the American West before from multiple perspectives, and will span across 15 years through its fourth installment. Joining Costner on the roster are Sienna Miller (North Star), Abbey Lee (The Neon Demon), Jena Malone (Love Lies Bleeding), Danny Huston (Yellowstone), Sam Worthington (Avatar: The Way of Water), and more.

Check out the full interview in the transcript below to find out how much of the saga Costner has already started filming, why Horizon Chapter 1 won’t have a director’s cut, the one deleted scene, hs four-hour assembly cut, and the release schedule he has mapped out. Costner also discusses working on his limited series Hatfields & McCoys, why he’s ready to step into comedy with Will Ferrell, and more.

Horizon: An American Saga Chronicles a multi-faceted, 15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west.Release Date June 28, 2024 Main Genre Western Writers Jon Baird

One Thing Kevin Costner Isn’t Going to Do Is Short-Change His Audience
Image via Warner Bros.

COLLIDER: You will not remember this, but it was 10 years ago that we were backstage at CinemaCon after you won an award. It was the week of Draft Day, the football movie. We were backstage and you told me about your maybe three-part Western. I remember because it got picked up everywhere, and it was the first time I had heard about this project, which is now Horizon. When you were telling me about it back then versus what’s coming out now, how similar was the vision that you came up with back then to what we’re actually seeing?

KEVIN COSTNER: It was the same story. The exact same story.

Back then you mentioned it would be a three-part movie.

COSTNER: Well, I fucking wrote it longer. [Laughs]

[Laughs] I’m not complaining.

COSTNER: It’s the same. I just realized the content was four movies. It’s like when I did Hatfields & McCoys. They thought it was two nights. I said it was four. “If you like every scene that was written in Hatfields & McCoys,” and I’m saying this to the executive at the time, “Then it’s four nights.” “Well, we only do two nights.” I said, “If it’s only gonna be two nights, I’m not gonna be able to be in it because I’m not gonna have all these scenes edited because they’ll go away. That’s not gonna be my entry into TV, seeing it cut and eviscerated because of your model.” So what happened was, it was like three movies, but when I looked at it, it was really four movies inside there when I had to really honestly look at it.

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One of the things that I was so happy about was just seeing real fire on screen and not VFX. I’m just curious if you could talk a little bit about the importance of practical filming and the challenges of practical filming.

COSTNER: It’s hard. It started getting cold right around then. It hadn’t been over 100, and when we were shooting that scene the water was freezing. We had to have a tank out there in case there was a fucking fire, but the water froze in the tank so we couldn’t put out any fire. So, it was unlikely we were gonna burn anything down to begin with. But when you’re out there in the real [world], we’re making a six-hour documentary of the making of these four movies and we are in complete windstorms. We’re in monsoons out there trying to make a movie. We’re out there with our picks trying to clear the snow in order to do a scene because there’s no snow. I shot Dances with Wolves in 106 days; we shot this movie in 52. It’s arguably bigger than Dances.

I don’t think people realize what’s happened in Hollywood in terms of the scheduling and how everything is reduced. A lot of people say that because of digital photography, you can shoot more in a day than with film, but I don’t know if that’s true.

COSTNER: That’s bullshit. You can shoot more, but your scenes are still hard. It’s not because you can shoot more. I don’t believe that at all. It has to do with how much money you have.

You mentioned 50-something days. Was that for just the first movie or is that for both movies?

COSTNER: No, that’s just the first one. Jesus, you’d be asking for a real miracle.

[Laughs] I’m just making sure.

COSTNER: Are these Dumb and Dumber you got on your shirt?

No, this is Step Brothers.

COSTNER: I know what it is. I was making a joke with you.

Listen, I figured this is Cannes and this should have been premiered at Cannes.I love Will Ferrell.

COSTNER: He’s impossible not to love.

Exactly. So when you were shooting, how did it work shooting Chapter 1 and Chapter 2? Did you shoot Chapter 1 and then take a break? Can you talk about how that worked?

COSTNER: We took about three or four months? I started right away, but the motor started going in April. I know exactly when it started for a lot of reasons — April 15 we started shooting again.

What’s the Runtime for ‘Horizon’ Chapters 2, 3 and 4?

You are obviously planning on making four films. Are the scripts for Chapters 3 and 4 done?

COSTNER: Yes.

The first one is two hours and fifty-one minutes. Do you envision most of the movies being around that time?

COSTNER: Yeah.

I’m fascinated by the editing process because it’s ultimately where it all comes together.

COSTNER: Try editing without any film. You think that’s where it all comes together? [Laughs] No, I’m teasing.

Ultimately, it’s the final word, and I’m fascinated by editing because five more minutes can make or break something.

COSTNER: It can. Easily.

I really enjoyed Horizon. I know there were scenes that didn’t make it. This is a big question, but do you envision an extended version down the road?

COSTNER: It’s funny. I don’t really have a director’s version because I put the kitchen sink in there. Only one scene didn’t make it.

Really? Can I ask what the scene was?

COSTNER: It was a Jena Malone scene, which I hated to lose.

Image via Warner Bros.

I don’t wanna do spoilers but was it in the third act?

COSTNER: No, it was in the same sequencing. She stopped twice after asking her if he plays gold. “Did you alter? Did you play something like that?” And he walks away and he says, “Shit.” Well, he catches up to her and he apologizes, but it’s still not good enough because she punches him. It’s a really good scene and I don’t know why I took it out. I’m mad that I did, but that’s the only scene that came out. So it would have been, what, two and fifty-four minutes? People think that I don’t cut things. I do. The movie was almost four hours; I cut a lot to get it down to that. But I didn’t lose scenes because I just keep working it. I just keep working it like bread.

Was that your assembly cut?

COSTNER: Yeah.

I think people misunderstand when they hear four hours that there’s a four-hour movie, but that’s just all the footage.

COSTNER: Dance was five and a half hours, the assembly cut, and I loved every bit of it, but it wasn’t that good that way.

Kevin Costner Wants to Make a Comedy With Will Ferrell
Image by Sam Coley

You’ve done so many cool roles in your career, but there’s gonna be people out there who have never seen anything you’ve done. For those people, what’s the first thing you’d like them watching and why?

COSTNER: They can watch A Perfect World maybe. That doesn’t shoot to the top of the list, it’s just that I can’t look at Ferrell and John C. Reilly and think clearly.

[Laughs] I wear shirts like this just to bring a smile to people’s faces and it works.

COSTNER: It does. Listen, my kids really want me to act with him. That’s what they want. If I were to ever act with Will, that would be everything.

I’m gonna tell you something, I’ll bet you we can make that happen.

COSTNER: Well, he’s fantastic.

I apologize for this, but I don’t remember the last time you did a full comedy. Have you done a Will Ferrell-esque comedy in your career?

COSTNER: No.

Is it something that you wanna do?

COSTNER: Yeah, I would do it if the writing was good.

I’m just trying to get my head around you and Will Ferrell.

COSTNER: You’re like a matchmaker.

I have actually made things happen.

COSTNER: I believe you.

You put it out into the world.

Kevin Costner’s ‘Horizon’ Chapter 3 Is Under Way
Image via Warner Bros.

One of the things that was really cool about this year’s Cannes and one of the things that I love about Coppola and one of the things I love about you is you’re willing to finance to make things happen. There are a lot of fans of yours that want to see all four movies happen, so what is the status of Chapters 3 and 4 being made? I know you put in some money. Are you getting that money back or is it sort of like an investment in the movie? How did that actually work?

COSTNER: Well, you put real cash in. That I’ve had to do. [Chapter 3], I’ve started it already. I’ve shot three days, and then they said you were really important and I needed to meet you, so I flew here. [Laughs] When I leave here, I’m gonna go see Jimmy Kimmel, and then I’m gonna go right back to work and work as long as I can. So part of my job, though, is to try to raise more money so that we can continue. I’m taking the bites that God gives me.

What I love about Cannes is people here in France love movies in a way that America, I think, has lost. Can you talk about getting to premiere your film here?

COSTNER: It’s been a blessing for me. I’ve always dreamed about coming here and bringing my own film, and I’ve waited. I could have come here, I think, multiple times, but this was the moment. I think that Cannes has made a real difference in the life of this movie and how it might be received. It’s been invaluable. I’m thankful for being here.

With Chapter 2, what can you tease for people after they see Chapter 1?

COSTNER: Well, there’s a built-in montage so you understand what’s coming in Chapter 2, so I can’t tease them anymore.

I wanted to ask you about that. How much did you debate what you wanted to put there at the end of the movie versus at the end of the film cutting to “Directed by Kevin Costner,” and then at the end of the credits, putting something? How did you come up with that?

COSTNER: No, I wanted to embed it in the movie. I didn’t want to stop and start. Meaning, the way the movie ends, the credits don’t roll and then I put up the thing. It needs to be embedded. This is a hybrid for me. I have some movies that have kind of novel tendencies, meaning they’re like a big novel, and so I go until they’re done for me. This might be the way I do movies. If they’re not finished, I’ll just automatically go make the second one. I don’t just wait to see how it does.

I noticed in the credits that Lawrence Kasdan’s brother Mark has “story by” credits, and I’m so curious, how did you work with Mark on the script?

COSTNER: In 1988, I gave Mark notes about making a two-handed Western, and out of that came my character Hayes in a town called Sidewinder, ultimately what we call Horizon. So out of that came nine or ten characters that we decided to reverse engineer. So, instead of a town already being there, we created a movie where you saw how it actually began.

Where Will ‘Horizon: An American Saga’ End?

I didn’t know what Horizon was until I saw the film and I’m fascinated by following this one area and the things that happened and the people. In the writing process, how far did you go in terms of where Horizon ultimately goes?

COSTNER: It’s over. [Chapters] 3 and 4 are written.

Did you think about where Horizon goes from the 1850s all the way to modern times?

COSTNER: No. I’ve thought about certain things about that, but it ends kind of right in this golden age of the Westerns.

When you looked at the shooting schedule for Chapter 1, what day did you have circled in terms of, “I cannot wait to film this,” and what day did you have circled in terms of, “How the F are we gonna film this?”

COSTNER: I loved every day. That’s why I didn’t let anybody else direct it.

I want to ask about the release dates. You told me 10 years ago that you had a plan like what you ended up doing. How did you ultimately pick June and August rather than, say, June and Thanksgiving? How did that come up?

COSTNER: Well, I had a plan that was about every four to six months that they would come out and the studio that’s distributing has a feeling that this could work. They’re my partners, and so we’re doing everything to try to make that happen.

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 is in theaters on June 28.