We’re now less than a month out from the Venice Film Festival, where Kevin Costner’s passion project Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2 will premiere as a last-minute addition to the lineup on the Lido. Chapter 1 bombed in July, leading to Chapter 2 being pulled from its original release date (this Friday), part of why it was a big coup for Costner to finagle a spot at the festival. Which is what he really wanted all along (or so he says), so there! Look, the guy has sunk $38 million of his own money in the first film alone (two are completed, two more are planned) and mortgaged his Southern California mansion — I get that he’s gonna hustle. But some of the PR spin has been a wee bit desperate, imo. The latest angle? Costner is trying to draw a parallel with his classic Field of Dreams, saying people will watch and rewatch Horizon (all four of ‘em!) with their progeny for decades to come. I guess he thinks if he says it, it will come… to pass

People dismissed Field of Dreams too! Before Field of Dreams came out in 1989, a Vanity Fair profile of the film’s star predicted it would “probably disappear quickly” because it was “curiously literary and undramatic.” You can try telling that to the millions of people who’ve since made pilgrimages to the Dyersville, Iowa, cornfield where Ray Kinsella was advised that “if you build it, he will come,” but they might think you’re talking crazy. “It was so dismissive, that Field of Dreams would fade immediately,” Costner told E! News in an exclusive interview. “And we’re still doing celebrations of it. Men and women, sons and daughters, it’s stood the time of decades, now generations — and that’s how I try to make movies. That’s what I see for Horizon.”

Horizon will play for 50 years: “I’ve faced life with people being dismissive of me,” Costner said. “But they can’t be dismissive of Horizon, because now it’s out of their hands. And they might point to the finish line — well, this is what it did at the box office — but I know that this movie is going to play for the next 50 years.” Because not unlike with Field of Dreams, “There’s a moment in time where you want [your children] to see this movie,” he said. “To understand that this is what their [ancestors] went through. It’s not just a western, it’s a history of migration and what they had to do to survive. And I’m really proud of it.”

This was… weird: It was also imperative to Costner to give an honest depiction of western expansionism. “These towns that exist, whether they’re St. Louis, Tucson, Phoenix,” he said, “there was a moment in time when a single stake went in the ground. And that ground belonged to an indigenous population that didn’t want them.”

Coffee is paying (some of) the bills: And when naysayers told him to wake up and smell the coffee — that a western, or any ambitious original story meant for a big screen, just wouldn’t play in the streaming age — he paid them no mind. He also woke up and literally started smelling coffee. The actor tasted numerous brews en route to releasing the Horizon Blend by Kevin Costner, his partnership with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters helping to fuel his epic Chapter 1 press tour. It’s “important to me to have a level of authenticity with anything I do,” Costner said, a cup of coffee in hand during his Zoom with E! from his Santa Barbara home.

[From E! Online]

“But I know that this movie is going to play for the next 50 years.” Yes, Kevin, because that’s how long it’ll take to screen the whole thing one time through! To give Costner some credit, the first movie did finally get some good viewing numbers — on Video On Demand where people could stream the hours-long saga from the comfort of their homes. I’m baffled by Costner’s insistence that Horizon be four films, two to three hours each, and intended for screening at theaters. Something this length and scale seems so obviously better suited for television. And we’re in a golden age of television! But Costner’s like, “Nope. People want to see this, they gotta commit to going to the theater… until the numbers force me to make it available by streaming sooner than planned.” But that’s the auteur’s vision, and he’s clearly as authentic in his filmmaking as he is with his coffee making. And speaking of, what is it with the guys from Yellowstone and selling coffee? Taylor Sheridan could do a spin-off just on coffee wars!

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

Photos credit: Frederic Kern/Future Image/Cover Images, Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon, IMAGO/Dave Bedrosian / Avalon and Getty