Horizon: An American Saga – Potential Release Date, Story & Everything We Know About Kevin Costner’s Western Epic
The first installment in Kevin Costner's Horizon: An American Saga kicks off the actor-director's ambitious passion project.
- Kevin Costner’s upcoming movie, Horizon: An American Saga, is a big turning point in his directorial career, following the success of Dances with Wolves and the setback of Postman.
- Costner’s passion for Horizon: An American Saga led him to reject a $24 million offer to continue on Yellowstone, which has left fans disappointed but shows his dedication to the project.
- Horizon: An American Saga is confirmed as a four-part Western series exploring pre-and post-Civil War America, with a star-studded cast and a vision that has grown into four separate stories. It’s an ambitious gamble for Costner, reminiscent of James Cameron’s Avatar sequels.
Ever since it was announced that Kevin Costner chose to leave Yellowstone in favor of his passion project, there has been a lot of curiosity surrounding any Horizon: An American Saga to shed light on the ambitious movie (and its now-confirmed sequels). Costner will return to directing after a 20-year absence and lead the massive cast of the historical Western that is planned to kickstart a four-movie story. While most of the Horizon: An American Saga news has been surrounding how it has led to Costner’s shocking exit from Yellowstone, there is a lot to dive into with the movie.
Costner has helmed some big ambitious projects in his time as a director, and the Horizon: An American Saga release date will mark yet another turning point in his career. Dances with Wolves was a huge and partially self-financed gamble that ended up being a box office hit and won Costner Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture. Postman, on the other hand, was a critical flop that derailed Costner’s career prior to his hugely successful run on Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone. A lot of attention will be focused on Horizon: An American Saga and there is a lot of information out there about the exciting project already.
Horizon: An American Saga – Latest News
The latest Horizon: An American Saga news once again involved Costner’s exit from Yellowstone in order to pursue his upcoming movie. Costner is currently in the midst of a divorce trial and a lot of information is coming out about his decision to leave his hit show. Costner was in negotiations to return for future seasons of Yellowstone for a reported $24 million for seasons 6 and 7 only to reject the lucrative offer. Costner claims “We did try to negotiate. There were issues about creative. I tried to break the logjam. They walked away.”
Costner was reportedly attempting to decrease the amount of time spent filming the show so he could dedicate more time to filming Horizon: An American Saga. This could be a factor in the widely-reported creative differences between Costner and Yellowstone showrunner Taylor Sheridan. While such news will likely sadden Yellowstone viewers, as Costner’s exit seemingly prevented the show from continuing beyond season 5, it’s clear that Costner is incredibly passionate about making Horizon: An American Saga. Yellowstone is one of the most successful shows currently on TV, so Horizon: An American Saga must have huge potential for Costner to walk away from playing John Dutton to pursue it.
Horizon: An American Saga Is Confirmed
Horizon: An American Saga has been confirmed with the project first announced in January 2022. Costner confirmed the movie would be the first in a four-part Western series looking at pre-and post-Civil War America. Costner first commissioned Horizon as a single movie back in 1988 only to have no interest from studios at the time. Costner held onto the passion project ever since, nearly getting it made with Disney following his directorial feature Open Range. Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema joined the production to distribute while Costner claims he mortgaged his own personal property to get the movie made.
Horizon: An American Saga Release Date
The Horizon: An American Saga release date has not yet been set. Costner had previously expressed hope that the movie would be released in 2023 or be available in time for the Venice Film Festival, which is not the case. The movie began filming in August 2022 and wrapped in November 2022. With nearly a year of post-production, it would seem like the movie would be ready soon, but Costner also started filming the second installment in April 2022 and wrapped in June 2023.
Where To Watch Horizon: An American Saga
Horizon: An American Saga is set to be released in theaters. With its distribution coming through Warner Bros, it seems likely that the movie will be released on Max when the time comes for it to enter the streaming world.
Horizon: An American Saga Cast
Kevin Costner will head the Horizon: An American Saga cast in the lead role. Costner is no stranger to the Western genre as he first starred in the genre in 1985’s Silverado. Costner went on to direct his own ambitious Western project, 1990’s Dances with Wolves, which he also starred in. Costner’s other Westerns include Wyatt Earp, Open Range, and Hatfield & McCoys, though none of these matched the success of Dances with Wolves. Costner also revitalized his career thanks to the success of the modern Western series Yellowstone.
While Horizon: An American Saga is one of the main reasons Costner is leaving the Taylor Sheridan series, there are a number of actors from the Yellowstone universe who will be appearing in Horizon. Will Patton joined Yellowstone in season 3 as Garrett Randle, Jamie’s real father, while Danny Huston played the villainous Dan Jenkins in the first two seasons of the series. Outside the main Yellowstone series, James Landry Hebert appeared as Wade in the spinoff 1883.
No character details have yet been revealed, and Costner has alluded to the vastness of the Horizon: An American Saga cast. While the full casting hasn’t been disclosed, there are already several known names confirmed to be appearing in the new Kevin Costner western. Confirmed Horizon: An American Saga cast members include:
- Sienna Miller
- Luke Wilson
- Jena Malone
- Thomas Hayden Church
- Sam Worthington
- Michael Rooker
- Abbey Lee
- Jamie Campbell Bower
- Jeff Fahey
- Isabelle Fuhrman
- David O’Hara
- Angus Macfayden
Horizon: An American Saga – Creative Team
The Horizon: An America Saga creative team is also being led by Kevin Costner who will direct the movie and also wrote it alongside Jon Baird. Another key collaborator for the movie is cinematographer J. Michael Muro, who worked as a camera operator on Dances with Wolves which won the Oscar for Best Cinematography, and reteamed with him on Open Range.
Horizon: An American Saga Story Details
The epic Horizon: An American Saga story will kick off the four-part movie series that will explore pre-Civil War and post-Civil War expansion of the American West. There are not many plot details beyond that, but Costner clearly has a huge vision in mind for the stories he is going to tell. It seems likely that this first movie will deal with the pre-war aspects of the story with Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga story potentially showing the dangerous early days of the country as people attempted to settle and begin building their dreams with an uncertain future looming.
Horizon: An American Saga – Sequel Plans
The Horizon: An American Saga sequels have already been greenlit, with the second installment already beginning filming in May 2023. Costner claims that, while the movie began as a single story, the more he added to it the bigger it grew until it was four separate stories. It will be interesting to see if the four movies will focus on different stories and different characters in each installment or if it will be one large story of these characters in a vital time in American history.
The four-movie plan is certainly an ambitious one that feels similar to another maverick filmmaker with James Cameron’s Avatar sequels. With the second movie already in production, it seems as though the audience will at least get two chapters in Costner’s saga. However, Horizon: An American Saga is such a huge gamble for the actor, it remains to be seen if he will actually be able to pull it off.
