Kevin Costner Spent $38 Million of His Own Money on His Western Epic HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA
Kevin Costner revealed in a recent interview with GQ magazine that the reports claiming he spent $20 million of his own money to co-finance his new Western epic Horizon: An American Saga are not true.
It turns out that he actually spent a lot more money than that to get his passion project made. He confirmed that he spent $38 million of his own personal money!
Costner said: “I know they say I’ve got $20 million of my own money in this movie. It’s not true. I’ve got now about $38 million in the film. That’s the truth. That’s the real number.”
The Western saga will span four movies, the first two of which were shot back to back. Costner is no in pre-production on the third movie, but neither of the final two installments are fully funded yet. That doesn’t seem to worry Costner, though.
He said: “They’re going to happen regardless, but they’re not already funded. I got my suitcase on the end of the street, you know, and seeing: Where are all you brave, rich billionaires? If I hear the word billionaire one more time, I think I’m going to puke.”
When talking about the kind of financiers he’s looking for Costner said: “I need somebody that’s impulsive, is emotional, has money, and wants to go west. And it’s like: Now let’s see how much of a gambler you are. Because everything I have is in the movie.”
I’d be the perfect investor for Costner… if I had the money part!
Horizon: An American Saga chronicles “a multi-faceted, 15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West. Experienced through the eyes of many, the epic journey is fraught with peril and intrigue from the constant onslaught of natural elements to the interactions with the Indigenous peoples who lived on the land and the determination and at many times ruthlessness of those who sought to settle it.”
Costner previously talked about the story, saying: “It’s a really beautiful story; it’s a hard story. It really involves a lot of women, to be honest. There are a lot of men in it, too, but the women are really strong in Horizon.
“It’s just them trying to get by every day in a world that was impossibly tough. They were often [dragged] out to these places because that’s where the men wanted to go; women were following their men.
“They didn’t ask to be in these territories that were unsettled and dangerous, and life wasn’t easy. I’ve chosen to make sure that was really obvious, that that wasn’t easy, and how vulnerable people were.”
The movie also has a great cast that includes Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jamie Campbell Bower, Luke Wilson, Thomas Haden Church, Jena Malone, Michael Rooker, Alejandro Edda, Will Patton,, and Tatanka Means.
The film premiered at The Cannes Film Festival last week and it was met with a 7-minute standing ovation because I guess that’s how movies are judged at Cannes.
When asked at a Cannes press conference about his struggle to finance the film, Costner responded, saying: “I don’t know why it was so hard.”
“You saw the movie. I don’t know why it was so hard to get people to believe in the movie that I wanted to make,” he added. “You know, I don’t think my movie is better than anybody else’s movie, but I don’t think anybody else’s movie is better than mine. I don’t go out into the world with something I don’t think is good.”
The first two films will get a dual theatrical release. The first film will be released on June 28, 2024, with the second film set to debut a couple of months later on August 16, 2024.
Source: Variety