The Making Of Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter
1 has really divided audiences, with some calling it a modern masterpiece,
while others brand it a massive misfire. So lets take a look behind the scenes, into
the making of this divisive new Western, with 20 things you didn’t know about
Horizon - Chapter 1, such as how the movie is secretly a prequel, why this character
is more significant than you might think, and the reason why Kevin Costner is still optimistic
about the Saga, despite its box office woes. So the origin of Horizon can actually
be traced all the way back to 1988, 1 when Kevin Costner first started
developing a script for a Western Movie, inspired by the true history
of America in the Old West. And the film was reportedly a
fairly conventional Western, following two characters - one who was
very lucky, and another who was not, finding that everything in his
life always seemed to end in blood. Now it's not entirely clear why Kevin Coster
opted to make Horizon ahead of this original western movie that inspired it, however, the
unmade film may still yet see the light of day. Because when asked about what his
American Saga would actually include, Kevin Costner answered,
“Four three-hour movies and, if you like them, give me a call, and
I’ll go make that fifth one from 1988.” So in 2003, when Horizon was
still just a single movie, 2 Kevin Costner reportedly entered negotiations
with The Walt Disney Company to get it made. And this was because Kevin Costner had already
delivered them big a hit with Open Range, so it would make sense for the studio to want to
work with the director again on another western. However, during the pre-production stage,
Costner discovered that the studio had actually set limits on the budget, that
he felt he needed to do the movie justice. So, the director ultimately decided to
walk away from the project all together. So in the years that followed, Kevin
Costner worked with writer Jon Baird, 3 to expand upon the original script for Horizon, developing the narrative into an origin
story for the town that the story was set in. And this took the form of an epic four-part
saga, that was a lot darker in tone than the original movie, and sought to accurately depict a
12-year span, of pre- and post-Civil War America. As such, Kevin Costner has described Horizon:
An American Saga, as more of a journey movie, than a plot movie, saying that “We have a tendency to think of westerns as simple. They
are not simple. They’re complicated.” So while developing Horizon, Kevin Costner
was also starring in the hugely popular 4 neo-western TV show Yellowstone,
as the character of John Dutton. And apparently, during the
production of the second season, its creator Taylor Sheridan, was
looking for additional writers, so Kevin Costner decided to send him
his un-produced script for Horizon. However, it seemed that nothing came of
this, and when asked about his decision to send Sheridan the script, Costner
said, “I don't know if there’s any duplications there. Whether he borrowed
something, only he'd have to admit to.” Now it was never clarified what exactly Costner
was referring to here, but IndiWire themselves noted that both Horizon: An American Saga, and
Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone prequel series 1883, both include stories about a wagon train
set in roughly the same time period. So as Yellowstone steadily became one of
the biggest shows on TV, reports began to 5 circulate of behind-the-scenes friction between
Kevin Costner and Taylor Sheridan, which some assumed was the reason why Costner decided to
leave the show, midway into its fifth season. However, since then, Kevin Costner has
clarified that this was not the case, and that his decision was really
down to the increasing amount of time it was taking to film a
season of Yellowstone, saying: Another big hurdle that Kevin Costner had to
clear, in order to get Horizon made, was to 6 find the reported one hundred million dollars
that he needed just to fund the first movie. So, Costner took out a mortgage on a 10-acre
plot of land that he owned in Santa Barbra, and invested thirty eight million
dollars of his own money into the budget, before reportedly gathering the rest of
the funds he needed from unnamed investors. Now it is fairly unusual for directors
to fund there own movies like this, but it’s actually a pretty common occurrence for
Kevin Costner, who’s previously found success in investing his own money into films, such as
with Dances with Wolves, and Black or White. So this presumably factored into
Costner’s decision to self-fund Horizon, as he was already well-versed in the
risk and reward nature of the practice. So in his efforts to get Horizon made,
Kevin Costner came up against a whole 7 series of unforeseen issues, that made an
already difficult task that much harder. The first of which was trying to direct a film
in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, and during the Hollywood strikes that followed. Then secondly, his wife of 18
years, Christine Baumgartner, filed for divorce during the
production of the first movie. And finally, despite expressing an openness to
return to Yellowstone, Kevin Coster eventually decided that he’d had enough of the drama
and speculation surrounding his exit, and officially confirmed that he would not
be returning to the show in the future. However, despite all of these
difficulties and distractions, Costner remained focused and
committed to getting Horizon made. So during his long career as an actor, Kevin
Costner worked under many different directors, 8 and he himself has claimed that for the
most part, other directors are better at the job than him, despite him winning
an Academy Award for Dances With Wolves. But when it came such a passion project like
Horizon, Costner valued his creative vision above all else, and was absolutely determined
to direct it the way he wanted, saying: So when it came to casting Horizon, Kevin
Costner had a huge amount of roles to fill. 9 As such, in a lot of cases, he went with
actors that he had already worked with on previous movies, including Jena Malone,
Michael Rooker, Will Patton and Jeff Fahey So one character that survived from the
very first script for Horizon in 1988, 10 was the character of Hayes Ellison, who
ended up being played by Kevin Costner. As such, the name Hayes really stuck with Costner
throughout the protracted development of Horizon, and ended up being the name that
he chose for his son in 2009. So when it came to casting the character of
Nathaniel Kitteridge in Horizon Chapter 1, Costner felt it would be fitting to
cast his now fifteen-year old son, Hayes, who was keen to take on the
role, having already decided that he wanted to follow in his father’s
footsteps, by becoming an actor. One element of Horizon that’s
difficult to find fault with, 11 is its cinematography, with the first film being
shot primarily in picturesque southern Utah. And behind the camera was cinematographer,
J. Michael Muro, who first met Kevin Costner, while working as a steady-cam operator on
Field Of Dreams, and Dances With Wolves, before being handed his debut as a
director of photography on Open Range. So unsurprisingly, Muro delivered some of
the best work of his career with Horizon, doing so on a very tight schedule. 12 Another aspect of Horizon that
really impressed, was its score, written by award-winning composer John Debney, best known for his work on The Passion Of The
Christ, Sin City and The Greatest Showman. And on working with Costner, the composer said,
“He’s been such an inspiring leader, and his vision for the music for these films has never
wavered, as he told me from our first meeting, to go big with memorable themes that take
us back to the Westerns of the Golden Age.” So something that Kevin Costner was adamant
about as a director was authenticity, 13 especially when it came to the
sets featured in the movie. For instance, the western town featured in Chapter
1, was apparently as much a time capsule as it was a movie set, with every detail being accurate
to the time period, even down to the door knobs. 14 Kevin Costner also focused a lot of his
attention into his characters, ensuring that every one of them had a detailed backstory
to inform their personality and motivations, despite many of these backstories never
actually being explored on screen. For example, when actress Abbey Lee
asked Costner for more detail about her character Marigold, the director
instantly shared a detailed backstory, about how her character was shaped by her
experiences as a child on an Orphan Train, a real-life, controversial movement from the
late 1800’s, that saw hundred of thousands of children transported from crowded Eastern
cities, to remote foster homes in the Midwest. 15 So Horizon: An American Saga was clearly Kevin
Costner’s love letter to the western genre in general, but there were actually a few
films that he cited as direct inspirations. For instance, How The West Was Won, and The
Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, were apparently both big influences on Horizon, especially in
terms of their epic sense of scope and scale. In fact, even actress Sienna Miller turned
to the work of John Ford for inspiration, upon accepting her leading role in the movie. She also watched a lot of Sergio Leone
Westerns, using Claudia Cardinale’s performance as Jill in Once Upon a Time in the West, as the
basis for her performance as Frances Kittredge. So when Kevin Costner finally
completed Horizon - Chapter 1, 16 he opted to premiere at the
2024 Cannes Film Festival. And after the credits rolled, the movie
received a ten minute standing ovation, that moved Kevin Costner to tears,
which is kind of understandable after everything that he sacrificed
to bring the movie to the big screen. 17 Now despite the warm reception that
Horizon received at its premiere, critics left the theatre
deeply divided about the movie. For instance, many had issue with its
storytelling, such as The Hollywood Reporter, who said: “Any of these plot-lines might have
sustained an hour of compelling television, but they don’t add up to much in
this awkwardly stitched quilt, which rarely provides the space for
anyone’s experiences to resonate.” And other critics were put off by its
pacing, like Variety, who said “It feels like the seedbed for a miniseries. Much of
what happens is wispy and not very forceful; the film doesn’t build in impact, and it
seldom seems to aim in a clear direction. But other reviewers were much more
positive about Horizon, such as The Wrap, who said: “Horizon is big and bold and
majestic, with cinematographer J. Michael Muro capturing those expansive Utah vistas,
and John Debney’s score making sure that the film sounds just like the Westerns
that play in the heads of everybody.” Equally, impressed with the movie
was the Daily Telegraph, who said: “Part of the pleasure of Horizon is the sheer,
magisterial sweep of the thing – with mountains and buttes and mesas like these, who needs CG?
But it's texture lives in small, telling details.” So the reception to Horizon - Chapter
1 was pretty much the definition of mixed, with Rotten Tomatoes currently giving it
a 48% critic score, and a 70% audience score. So when the the movie finally
premiered on June 28th, 2024, 18 it really struggled at the box office,
roughly grossing a worldwide total of thirty four million dollars, against
a budget of one hundred million. Now obviously the mixed reception from
critics probably didn’t help its chances, but it seems there were a number of reasons
why Chapter 1 flopped at the box office, including a general lack of marketing,
an overly long run-time for cinemas, as well as very strong competition from
Inside Out 2, and A Quiet Place: Day One. 19 So following the box office
disappointment of Horizon - Chapter 1, the decision was made to drop Chapter 2 from
its pre-planned release date of August 16th. And apparently, this was done to give people
a chance to watch the first film on streaming and physical media, in order to build up a
larger audience, that will hopefully show up to cinemas for Chapter 2, following its premiere
at the Venice Film Festival on September 7th. 20 Now even after the turbulent
release of Horizon - Chapter 1, Kevin Costner still sounds optimist
about the future of his American Saga, especially considering that the first film has
since posted strong numbers on streaming and VOD. So for now, it would seem that Costner
is wholeheartedly sticking to his plan, of releasing three more instalments
of Horizon over the coming months, just as long as he has the backing to do so. Now whether these movies actually end up
releasing in cinemas is another question, but regardless, Costner has already suggested
that if and when all the films are released, there’s a lot of potential for them to be
converted into a miniseries or a TV show, which will likely be of particular interest
to streaming services, and possibly even give critics reason to reevaluate Chapter 1, when
its viewed as one part of a larger narrative. But let me know below, what are you honest
thoughts on Horizon - Chapter 1, good or bad? And while you’re here you might also
want to check out this video right here.