S Poddar
Kevin Costner has addressed the decision to skip the theatrical release of the second part of his Western saga, Horizon: An American Saga. The first installment of this big endeavor opened in theaters on June 28 and received a lukewarm box office reception with a paltry $36 million around the world against its huge $100 million budget.
Costner, who pumped about $38 million of his own money into the film, appeared to be in no denial over its poor showing at the box office. “The first part didn’t have overwhelming success,” he said September 7 during the Venice Film Festival. “I’ve had a lot of movies like that, ones that didn’t fare well initially but found their audience over time.”
He explained decisions on release schedule, saying it was a “studio decision” that Chapter Two was due to launch six weeks after the first one. That plan was abandoned.
It was a success, so New Line Cinema announced in July that Chapter Two was being pushed from its initial date of August 16. That decision was made to give audiences more time with the first movie ahead of the sequel’s premiere.
Of course, even with a few setbacks, Costner held out hope as he appeared at the Venice Film Festival. He had always hoped for a separation of around five to six months between the releases of the two parts, which would have given him the chance to promote both films at the festival. When that shrunk to six weeks, it seemed as though his plans would not materialize. Yet, he described the opportunity to showcase his work in Venice that actually arose as a “miracle.”
Looking ahead at the future of the saga, Costner himself admitted that it was getting difficult to keep telling the story. “If there’s anything that you expect from part two, you realize that mostly sequels are far more difficult than the original; it’s tough to keep going forward, and with each chapter it gets tougher. But let me say this: Chapter Three is going to be really, really intense. You know the characters inside out, and life just keeps throwing them curveballs left and right in major ways.”
Costner continued to make clear his determination to forge ahead with Chapter Three by describing it as relentless. “I need to push forward and not let things slide back. I gotta keep pushing and make sure I continue to drive this forward.”
He welled up, too, discussing the future of the franchise, which for now is uncertain, but vowed to complete the trilogy: “I don’t know exactly how I’m going to make Chapter Three right now, but I’m going to make it,” Deadline quoted him as saying.
The third chapter of Horizon should arrive by the end of the year. This saga, which Costner directed and starred in, deals with a 15-year storyline set against the backdrop of the American Civil War and includes stars such as Sienna Miller, Jamie Campbell Bower, Ella Hunt, and Sam Worthington.
Writing for The Independent, Geoffrey McNab called the opening chapter a long slog through a Western-inspired endgame and noted it would delight genre aficionados, but required great patience on behalf of its audience.
