EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. and New Line have joined Horizon, the epic period Western that Kevin Costner is directing, starring in and producing through his Territory Pictures. Costner co-wrote the script with Jon Baird,. Costner and Baird recently teamed on the script for another future project, The Explorers Guild. Horizon will put the Yellowstone star back behind the camera for the first time since 2003’s critically acclaimed Open Range. Horizon has been a longtime passion project for Costner, and one that has the sweep of his 1990 epic Dances With Wolves, the film that won Best Picture and Best Director Oscars for Costner among seven wins out of a dozen Oscar nominations.
Horizon 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. The deal puts Costner back in the Warner Bros fold. The studio was for years his home base. Pic is eyeing a late summer start.
Costner currently stars in and executive produces Paramount Network’s hit drama series Yellowstone, the number one series across broadcast, cable, and premium, and also the most successful TV franchise across both physical and digital transactional media in 2021. The Emmy-nominated show’s fourth season finale broke audience records on cable television with over 15 million total viewers and was recently renewed for a fifth season. Before that, Costner won an Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award for his performance in the History Channel’s miniseries Hatfields and McCoys: An American Vendetta, which he also produced.
Warner Bros Pictures Group Chairman Toby Emmerich said the studio sparked to the chance to “partner with Kevin on his long-awaited return to directing with this epic western at Warner Bros and New Line. Kevin’s ambitious vision for this story is the perfect crystallization of his affinity for the American West and passion to bring this turning point in its history to life with all the human drama, cultural complexity and immense scope that it merits.”
WME-repped Costner said he was “thrilled to once again re-team with Toby Emmerich and the team at Warner Bros. and New Line to bring the expansive story of Horizon, and America’s settlement of the West and all of the aspects that it entailed, to audiences.”
