Kevin Costner presented the U.S. premiere of “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2” at the Santa Barbara Film Festival Friday night, but Costner didn’t give any updates on what’s happening with the Western series. However, the second chapter concludes with a lengthy preview of “Chapter 3.”
Costner explained the inspiration for the series to a packed house, including several cast members and guests like Quentin Tarantino, at the historic Arlington Theatre.
“The people who traveled across the ocean to America were in search of a dream,” he said. “If you were mean enough and tough enough, you could make it yours. And that was a nightmare for the people who had been here for 15,000 years. And this land was contested. It was a bad ending for the Native Americans who existed here and had found some equilibrium. But I’m not embarrassed about that, I’m just disturbed we don’t know more about it.”
“Horizon” star Jon Beavers, currently making waves in Hulu’s “Paradise,” said he’s ready to keep working on the series. “Anytime Kevin tells me to jump on a horse, I’m there,” said the actor after the premiere.
Kathleen Quinlan, who has a scene-stealing moment in “Chapter Two,” said she won’t be returning for the third installment, but was grateful she was able to be part of the second film’s emphasis on female characters.
“I was always bothered that we didn’t have more women in our Westerns, because there was no West without women,” Costner said in a Q&A with SBIFF director Roger Durling, costume designer Lisa Lovaas and composer John Debney.
“For us to think that a woman couldn’t be co-opted right in front of a group of people — we’re kidding ourselves. It’s happening now, all around us, across the world,” Costner said, referring to a pivotal scene in “Chapter Two.” “When we were creating the story, we could not keep women out of it. It just was easier with them in it.”
Costner wasn’t asked about his plans for the rest of the saga during the Q&A, but he said, “I started this in 1988. I couldn’t make it then and it didn’t seem like anybody liked it too much, so I thought ‘Fuck it, I’m going to write four more.’”
Kevin Costner at the “Horizon Chapter 2” U.S. premiere in Santa Barbara.
Matthew Chernov
The “Yellowstone” star and “Dances With Wolves” best director winner financed parts one and two of the saga largely with his own funds, only to find a muted reception from critics and audiences for the first 3-hour installment of the sprawling story.
Costner thanked Durling and the festival, who he said has long supported the project. “This is where I make my home and you made me feel like a giant tonight,” Costner said.
“Chapter 2” is set to be released in theaters in Germany April 3, according to IMDB, but there are no plans yet for a U.S. release. In addition to director-star Costner, it co-stars Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, Danny Huston and Jena Malone.
“Horizon Chapter 2” premiered at the Venice Film Festival back in September, where Variety critic Jessica Kiang wrote, “It has its stirring, majestic set pieces, such as a wagon burning or a barn-dance gunfight, and, courtesy especially of J. Michael Muro’s grand cinematography, lots of gorgeously epic shots of the wagon train wending across bright, arid plains or the settlement that will, we imagine, become ‘Horizon,’ gradually springing up from the dirt.”
