The saga of Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga continues… For those who haven’t been paying attention to Horizon (of which there are many), a quick recap: Costner walked away from his $3 million-an-episode gig with Yellowstone to film his passion project, which he stars in, directs, co-wrote, and produced with $38 million of his own money and a mortgage on his Carpinteria mansion. Oh, and his great vision for Horizon was a series of four films, each with a running time of two-to-three hours. The great payoff for Costner would be when audiences flocked to see the first installment, H:AAS — Chapter One. If you film it, they will come. Only the people didn’t come, and the critics who had to see the movie panned it. Chapter One bombed so badly that the second film lost its mid-August release date. But I guess Costner has been working the phones, because lo and behold, H:AAS — Chapter Two will now premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September:
Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter Two” is set to world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September after its U.S. release was pulled.
The Western epic’s second chapter was scrapped earlier this month from its planned Aug. 16 release in U.S. theaters after “Horizon’s” first installment, which carried a $100 million budget, earned only $11 million on its opening weekend.
“Chapter Two” — which Costner again directs and stars in alongside Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone and Danny Huston — will bow on the Lido out-of-competition on Sept. 7. The world premiere will be preceded earlier the same day by a screening of the first “Horizon” movie, which launched from Cannes in May to a seven-minute standing ovation.
New Line Cinema’s “Horizon: An American Saga” is a multi-faceted depiction of the Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West. In addition to directing and starring, Costner served as a co-writer with Jon Baird (“The Explorers Guild”) and produced through his Territory Pictures.
“My dream was always to show ‘Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter Two’ at the Venice Film Festival,” Costner said in a statement. “The fact that now they have decided to show ‘Chapter One’ earlier in the day and then the world premiere of ‘Chapter Two’ that evening shows not only their belief in how the two films work together but their support of a director’s vision. I’m indebted to Alberto Barbera for his courage and leadership in committing to this cinematic journey.”
Added Barbera: “It is a great pleasure and honor to host the world premiere of the chapter two of ‘Horizon: An American Saga,’ alongside its chapter one. This late addition to the lineup of the Venice Film Festival pays a heartfelt and respectful tribute to the visionary project of a great actor and director, who invested himself in the epic reconstruction of the years crucial to the found of the country, digging beyond myth in search of authenticity capable of restoring a piece of history in its complex and contradictory reality.”
In Variety’s review of the first film, chief film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote: “Instead of unfurling a Western saga in a solid powerful arc, Costner serves up three hours of anecdotes, cross-cutting among groups of characters, dropping in on situations that are dropped just as quickly, taking a skittery overview of life on the range, and asking the audience, in many cases, to stitch together the backstory of what they’re seeing.”
That was a slick move by Variety to reprint their lukewarm review at the end there. Also slick, or at least curiously worded, was Venice Film Festival Director Alberto Barbera slipping into his statement that Horizon is a “late addition to the lineup.” And Costner finagled not only the world premiere of Chapter Two, but also a screening of Chapter One earlier in the day? I hope there’s a decent break between the films! I once went to a double feature of The Godfather I & II in a single day; there were five hours between the start times. The tight turnaround was intense, but it was an offer I couldn’t refuse! (Thank you, thank you, I know that was well done.) Bear in mind, also, that Costner is supposedly just starting production on the third film, and who knows about the fourth. In the meantime, I’m assuming Signore Barbera will soon be moving into Costner’s Carpinteria mansion. That was the bargaining chip, si?
Photos credit: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon, IMAGO/Dave Bedrosian / Avalon