Kevin Costner in the movie «Horizon: An American Saga»
In November 2023, an unusual meeting of minds occurred. Coffee maker Green Mountain Coffee Roasters—part of the Keurig Dr Pepper empire, which also includes companies like Snapple and Dr Pepper—has announced a collaboration with actor, director and (they describe it as) “famous Oscar winner” Kevin Costner. for the production of Kevin Costner's Horizon Blend.
The blend is said to have a «layered and complex flavor profile based on [Costner's] personal coffee taste» and has a «smooth yet robust flavor profile filled with earthy, smoky notes.» Costner himself said: “Together with the team at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, we embarked on a journey of exploration, experimenting with different concepts. They were able to guide me through the entire process where my opinions were valued and taken into account. It was the best result I could imagine.”
Actors selling their names and faces to beverage companies is certainly nothing new; witness George Clooney, happily trading his reputation for millions of Nespresso. However, there is more to Costner's embrace of Green Mountain than just a love of cash or coffee. Instead, the mix's title, «Horizon,» serves as a marketing tool for what may be the 69-year-old director's most ambitious project yet, a two-part Western epic due this summer in what's being called a major motion picture. event – and the riskiest film of 2024.
Plot details are sparse, other than the fact that it takes place before and after the American Civil War and depicts the expansion of the American West, and that Costner will star (naturally) alongside a cast that includes Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington and Luke Wilson. A short teaser released in late 2023 gave few clues. But the film is undoubtedly a true passion project for its star director, which began as a relatively low-budget picture in 1988 and slowly came to fruition over the next three and a half decades.
What's unusual is that its two halves come out within weeks of each other, in June and August, rather than a year or so apart as expected. If the first part of the grandly titled Horizon: An American Saga is a hit, then the second part will almost certainly be a success, and the next two films that Costner promised — or threatened — will also come true. And if this is a failure, then at least the failure will be quite independent, and will not drag on into next year.
At this point, it is impossible to know whether the films will be successful or not. Costner hasn't been a box office star for decades. Although he has recently appeared in high-profile supporting roles in financially successful films such as Hidden Figures and Molly's Game, he hasn't starred in a major blockbuster since 1997's The Postman, a post-apocalyptic fantasy drama that received terrible reviews and received terrible reviews. a blatant commercial failure.
His biggest success since then was the 2003 western Open Range, in which he co-starred with Robert Duvall and Annette Bening and which, perhaps coincidentally, was his last film as a director. However, Hollywood was a very different place two decades ago, long before the advent of superhero movies and streaming services. At the time, films with adult themes could gross an impressive $68 million on a budget a third of that amount. Now they may struggle to be noticed by anyone.
Kevin Costner with his Horizon brand coffee blend. Photo: Keurig Dr Pepper
However, there is a decisive factor in Costner's favor. He may no longer be a big hit on the big screen, but since 2018 he has appeared in the hit western Yellowstone as patriarch John Dutton III, for which he won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in 2023. The show is produced and written by head showrunner Taylor Sheridan, takes place in the present day, but otherwise shares many of the same themes as Horizon, revolving around the struggle for power and status in Montana and focusing on Costner's charismatic and driven cattle rancher.
In the first episode, a character states, “I am the opposite of progress. I am the wall he hits, and I am not the one who breaks it.” This conservative spirit permeates the series — even if Sheridan is said to have been irritated by the appointment — and has led to it becoming a huge hit in America's red states, generating much goodwill towards Costner: all of which he will need if Horizon is to achieve the success he desires.
His new directorial project was filmed between August 2022 and the summer of 2023, and the past year in particular has proven to be something of an annus horribilis for Costner. Although things started well at the Golden Globes, the actor was unable to take it due to flooding on California highways and later drew ridicule for the overly casual acceptance speech he gave when accepting the award. Instead of the black tie that most of his fellow actors wore to the ceremony, Costner wore loungewear-like clothing and delivered his acceptance speeches while lying in bed.
It didn't help that he was already embroiled in a furious dispute with Sheridan over creative control and had announced his intention to leave Yellowstone after the fifth series; He'll make his final appearance on the show this November, shortly after the release of Horizon 2.
Kevin Costner with Kelly Reilly in Yellowstone
Yellowstone certainly revived Costner's career, and it's doubtful that without it he would have gotten anywhere near the $200 million plus financing that the two Horizon parts required. However, there is a certain degree of uncertainty as to how exactly he received this money. In a lengthy and (apparently) candid interview with Francis Ford Coppola last year for Deadline, Costner admitted that he invested a lot of his own money. “I mortgaged 10 acres of land on the water in Santa Barbara where I was going to build my last home,” he said. “But I did it without thinking. It drove my accountant crazy. But this is my life, and I believe in the idea and the story.»
The film is also believed to have been made with money from Middle Eastern investors — a surprising choice given its all-American subject matter — and Costner was recently seen in Saudi Arabia. But there are few details about who contributed tens of millions of dollars to his passion project.
After the success of Open Range, he almost made a film with Disney, but the proposed budget was $5 million less than what he needed. However, Costner refused to abandon this idea. As he told Deadline: “At the end of the day, I’m a storyteller, and I went ahead and put my money into it. I'm not a very good businessman, so scratch your head if you will. I don't know why, but I don't let go of this thing. I've pushed it to the middle of the table three times in my career and didn't even blink. This is my fourth.» (It is currently distributed by Warner Bros Pictures in the US and K5 worldwide.)
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It didn't help that Costner was also involved in a costly divorce from his wife of nearly two decades, Christina Baumgartner, which was finalized last year; While it is unclear what led to the end of the marriage, his rep issued a passive-aggressive statement: “It is with great sadness that it has been revealed that circumstances beyond his control have arisen that have resulted in Mr. Costner having to participate in a divorce action » He's since found himself back in the tabloids thanks to his relationship with musician Jewel, and amid the ridicule and rumors surrounding the Yellowstone finale, he knows he has a lot to prove.
Thus, 2024 will be something of a watershed year for Costner. There was another disastrous appearance at the Golden Globes, during which he was ridiculed for appearing preoccupied and distant during a scripted performance with Barbie star America Ferrera, in which the pair presented Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Series; Costner was asked to quote part of Ferrera's monologue from Barbie, which he did with astonishing awkwardness, before declaring, «It just reminds me that when we take our time, when we get it right, when the movie works at its best.» , these may be moments you will never forget.» As, of course, it can be when it works for the worse.
Hollywood has already written off the Horizon films as a couple of flops. It's not hard to see why. If something as star-studded and critically acclaimed as Killers of the Flower Moon fails to crack $200 million at the global box office, Costner's endeavor will seem doomed from the start. Westerns are often difficult to sell commercially, especially internationally, and while Costner's great triumph Dances With Wolves grossed a staggering $424 million upon release in 1990, the odds are against anything even approaching that level of success seem unlikely.
The film that marked a turning point in Costner's commercial fortunes was Lawrence Kasdan's Wyatt Earp in 1994; it was compared to the more shooter Tombstone, and it flopped. Since then, the genre has had hits (Django Unchained, 3:10 To Yume, True Grit) and flops (Cormac McCarthy's hapless All the Pretty Horses, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford). In general terms, action films tend to do well at the box office, while more serious and meditative films struggle.
It's hard to say which camp the Horizon films will fall into, although Costner's track record as a director leans toward commercials. However, he still carries the taint of flops such as The Postman and Waterworld, as well as a reputation as a control freak over which he has been known to fall out with many of his former colleagues. most notably with Kevin Reynolds fired from both Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Waterworld.
Kevin Costner in “Dances with Wolves” Photo credit: Alami
However, Costner remains one of the undisputed stars of old-school Hollywood, and there is perhaps no one today who is more closely associated with the Western genre, thanks to both his films and Yellowstone. His significant personal financial investment in the Horizon films speaks volumes about his commitment to the material, and if they prove successful, the next two films will likely be greenlit.
What if not? Well, then it's time for him to wake up and smell the coffee. Still, few will hold it against Costner for this latest roll of the dice. Like Coppola, whose own passion project Megalopolis could go in either direction, it reflects a personal belief in the safety of bean counting and is therefore worthy of praise. If the films are good, that's an added bonus.
Still, it was hard not to sympathize with his final speech to Deadline last year, when he said: “But I’ll tell you what. I'll never do this again. I'll never put my damn money into another movie after these four.» Only time will tell whether he will recoup his investment or not.
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