Where Is Kevin Costner's ‘Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2'?
Kevin Costner in "Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2."
Kevin Costner's Western epic Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 held its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival one year ago on Monday. Whatever happened to the second of four planned films in the series?
On May 19, 2024, Costner's Horizon Chapter 1 debuted at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where it received a rapturous 11-minute standing ovation that brought Costner — who starred in, directed, co-wrote and co-financed the film — to tears (see the Cannes video below).
As it turns out, that was the highest peak that Costner would experience from his work on the Horizon film saga, as the film skidded into a steep decline a short time later when reviews out of Cannes hit.
Among the most damning reviews after the Cannes premiere came from critic Esther Zuckerman of the Daily Beast, which had a headline that read, 'Kevin Costner's 'Horizon' Is a Misogynistic, Racist, Retrograde Mess.' Things didn't get any better by the time Horizon Chapter 1 was released in theaters, as the film opened on June 28, 2024, with a 40% 'rotten' rating from Rotten Tomatoes critics based on 68 reviews.
Lucky for Costner, the rating improved, but to date still sits at a 51% 'rotten' based on 160 reviews of the movie. At least audiences have had a positive opinion of Horizon Chapter 1 on RT, as the film currently has a 70% 'fresh' Popcornmeter rating based on 2,500-plus verified user ratings.
Positive user ratings notwithstanding, there simply weren't enough moviegoers attending Horizon Chapter 1 in theaters. The 3-hour and 1-minute film's opening weekend generated a paltry $11 million in domestic ticket sales from June 28-30, 2024, which then plunged to $5.3 million in its second weekend frame.
By July 9, plans were revealed that Horizon Chapter 1 was making a quick pivot to digital streaming, and a day later, the film's distributor New Line Cinema and Costner's production company, Territory Pictures, postponed Horizon Chapter 2's planned Aug. 16 release date.
By the time Horizon completed its theatrical run on Aug. 8, the film earned $29 million domestically and $9.7 million internationally for a worldwide domestic tally of $38.7 million.
The failure of Horizon Chapter 1 no doubt came as a huge blow to Costner and company. Per Variety, Costner spent $38 million of his own money to finance Horizon while two unnamed private investors footed the bill for the rest of the project. Variety reported that the first film had a $100 million production budget before prints and advertising costs.
Kevin Costner in "Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1."
Since Kevin Costner was originally planning to release Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 in August of 2024, he proceeded to finish the film despite it being pulled from the summer movie calendar.
The actor-director went on to stage the film's worldwide premiere at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 7, but like the first film, negative reviews came flying out of Venice.
Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that that Horizon Chapter 2 was 'more fun to watch' than Horizon Chapter 1, but noted, 'This second three-hour tranche of Wild West-themed soap-operatic drama, premiering at Venice, has basically the same problems as its predecessor: too much setup and not enough payoff; jagged editing that only highlights the lack of harmony between its disparate narrative strands; and cliché-tinged production values that often make it feel corny and old-fashioned, and not in a good way.'
Variety's review of Horizon Chapter 2 wasn't much better, as critic Jessica Kiang wrote that 'the 3-hour-plus installment of Costner's passion project is just as unwieldy and bewilderingly scattershot as the first.'
Despite the critical response, Costner continued his quest to not only release Horizon Part 2 in theaters but to secure enough money to complete Parts 3 and 4.
'I'm hoping, I'm dreaming, I'm meeting all the billionaires that we all hear about — they're all hiding in the shadows,' Costner said during a Deadline Contenders panel for Horizon Chapter 1 on Nov. 16, 2024.
Also at the Deadline Contender's event, Costner noted he was at work on Horizon Chapter 3.
'I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to make it and then I'm going to make the fourth one,' Costner said at the Deadline Contenders event. 'And if you want to say 'the end' at that point, then that's the end.'
Following the film's world premiere in Venice, Italy, Horizon Chapter 2 made its U.S. premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Feb. 7. Like Venice, the first two chapters of Horizon were screened back-to-back.
The most recent word about the status of Horizon Chapter 2 came from one of the saga's stars, Isabelle Fuhrmann, who told ScreenRant on May 3 that she 'had no clue what Kevin's planning, but he's probably planning something.'
'I'm a really big fan of the second film. I think it really captures so much more of the women of that time period, and what was kind of going on for them, more so than the first one, which I feel like sets up this whole world,' Fuhrmann told ScreenRant. 'I really hope that people will see the second one when it comes out, and it gives us the opportunity to make the third one. But, right now, I'm starting another project, and I'm just hoping that I get that call from Kevin sometime soon."
Right now, Costner has other pressing matters to tend to. On May 12, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Costner's loan-out firm Horizon Series, New Line Cinema and City National Bank are entrenched in a legal battle.
While moviegoers await news of the release of Horizon Chapter 2, Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 on streaming. The film is available for subscribers of Max and Netflix, and is available for purchase or rent on digital streaming via video on demand.
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