Why Kevin Costner Is Releasing Horizon In Two Parts
Kevin Costner just can’t seem to leave the West behind. First came his directorial debut 1990’s Dances With Wolves, then the historical epic Wyatt Earp a few years later, and most recently the neo-Western Yellowstone. Now, as The Hollywood Reporter announces, Costner’s long-gestating project Horizon will finally be seeing the light of day next year, albeit in the form of two separate films released two months apart in order to make them feel more like an “event.”
Kevin Costner and Warner Bros. decided to roll out Horizon’s first two parts just months apart in the hope that the unique approach would be viewed as an epic event, drawing in larger box-office figures.
The unusual release strategy has many in Hollywood scratching their heads. Similar two-part films like Kill Bill Volumes 1 (2003) and 2 (2004), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Endgame (2019) were spread out over several months and even released in different years. Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1, on the other hand, is set to release on Jun 28, 2024, with Chapter 2 scheduled to follow roughly two months later on August 16.
Sources from Warner Bros. point to the only other example of such a release schedule—the Clint Eastwood doubleheader Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima, both released in 2006 with only a couple of months in between—as proof that what Kevin Costner is doing with Horizon isn’t that out of the ordinary.
The actor and director must feel especially confident about this project because he actually leveraged his Santa Barbara home to get funds to finish Horizon.
Executives further believe that Horizon’s unique rollout will make the movies “feel more like an event,” making it easier for the project to “break through the clutter and excite audiences.” Skeptics, on the other hand, might point to a box office dominated by superhero movies, sequels, and reboots as an unlikely barrier for a throwback genre like a Western to break through even with a gimmicky release.
The project, which spans the entire Civil War as well as the birth of the “Old West,” will have, according to Costner, a runtime of close to 11 hours over the course of four films. With such a long runtime—even spread over four films, that’s almost three hours per film—one has to wonder why Kevin Costner didn’t make Horizon for television rather than the big screen.
Given the popularity of Yellowstone and all of its spinoffs, television, either network or streaming, seems like the logical home for a Western of Horizon’s scope.
It’s possible that as an old-school Hollywood type, Kevin Costner doesn’t think “made for streaming” carries the same pedigree as “only in theaters.” There’s also the fact that after 35 years of development—always as a theatrical film—Costner can’t envision Horizon as anything but a series of movies.
Skeptics, on the other hand, might point to a box office dominated by superhero movies, sequels, and reboots as an unlikely barrier for a throwback genre like a Western to break through even with a gimmicky release.
The actor and director must feel especially confident about this project because he actually leveraged his Santa Barbara home to get funds to finish Horizon.
Court documents from Kevin Costner’s recent divorce from Christine Baumgartner reveal that the director has personally invested at least $20 million in Horizon and even deferred his fees as a director until after the film makes a profit. That’s a lot of pressure to put on an 11-hour epic set in the Old West that will most likely be sharing a marquee with the newest Captain America adventure and Disney’s latest live-action bastardization of one of its animated classics.
Good idea or not, Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 hits theaters on June 28, 2024. Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 2 will follow on August 16 of the same year.
