“Kevin Costner Responds to Criticism of His Latest ‘Yellowstone’ Project”

Kevin Costner is facing mounting pressure to justify his ambitious new project that follows his departure from Yellowstone, and his recent public statements have taken some unusual turns. After announcing his exit from the massively popular Paramount Western drama series that had propelled him back into Hollywood’s limelight, the actor now finds himself in a challenging position.

The debate rages on whether Yellowstone benefited more from having a seasoned Western actor like Costner in the lead role or if Costner’s career was rejuvenated by the show’s success. Regardless, Costner’s portrayal of John Dutton in a cowboy hat and his intense gaze into the distance became iconic.

With the series approaching its end with Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2, the big question now is whether Costner can sustain his momentum without the show. Before his departure, he had announced his grand plan for the Horizon film series, which aims to explore the history of westward expansion in post-Civil War America. The project was ambitious, with four sprawling, three-hour films planned, and the first two slated for release within a short span.

However, the reality hasn’t quite matched Costner’s expectations. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 faced a significant flop at the box office, leading New Line Cinema, which distributed the film and was partly financed by Costner himself, to pull the second installment from its original release date. The sequel now lacks a scheduled premiere, effectively canceling its planned release.

In an unexpected turn, the Venice Film Festival has opted to screen Horizon 2, relegating what was intended to be a worldwide release to a single showing. Costner, however, is trying to spin this as a positive development. According to Deadline, he claimed that the Venice screening was always part of his plan and that the studio’s actions were a mere obstacle. He stated, “I always wanted to come out with the [Horizon] movies about five, six months apart, and that was going to allow me to come to Venice… When it was six weeks, I wasn’t going to get to come here… But what happened is a miracle in life… My plan was always to bring it to Venice, and suddenly it has happened.”

In a peculiar comparison, Costner likened the historical scope of his films to Disney, saying, “I just love the journey of America, the promise of what America was… It’s not a land in Disneyland, it’s a place where it was difficult, and it happened in inches. And I just wanted desperately to tell that story.”