Kevin Costner stars in a blood-pumping new trailer his $100m gamble, the movie series Horizon: An American Saga.
The sneak peek dropped in the midst of a real-life drama, as Costner, 69, slammed Yellowstone producers.
He was said to have left Yellowstone because of scheduling conflicts with Horizon, a longtime passion project that he directed, co-wrote, acted in and produced.
Costner leads the cast of Horizon as gun-slinging pioneer Hayes Ellison, who crosses treacherous territory in hopes of a new life and faces down his rivals along the way.
In the searing new trailer, Ellison makes his way through the Old West during and after the Civil War, soldiering grimly on through wagon trains, shootouts, threats, brawls – and even a catastrophic bombing.
Kevin Costner stars in a blood-pumping new trailer his $100m gamble movie series Horizon: An American Saga
The sneak peek dropped in the midst of a real life drama, as Costner, 69, slammed Yellowstone producers after his acrimonious exit from the show; pictured in Horizon
He was said to have left Yellowstone because of scheduling conflicts with Horizon, a longtime passion project that he directed, co-wrote, acted in and produced
Costner leads the cast as gun-slinging pioneer Hayes Ellison, who treks west through dangerous territory in hopes of a new life and faces down his rivals along the way
In the searing new trailer, Ellison makes his way through the Old West during and after the Civil War, soldiering grimly on through wagon trains, shootouts and even a bombing
Early in the trailer, Ellison comes face to face with Caleb Sykes (Jamie Campbell Bower), a young long-haired man who emerges as his enemy.
Sykes confronts Ellison and scrutinizes his face, deciding he ‘ain’t from here’ and asking him menacingly: ‘Something you wanna say?’
By way of warning, he adds: ‘I will tell you this – in these territories, men’ll come try you. They will take from you until you are wiped clean from this land. I’m just saying that’s something you might wanna keep in mind.’
As Sykes sounds Ellison off, footage plays of a ruined church, a burned-out town and a hair-raising carriage chase that involves gunfire.
Ellison and Sykes eventually face off against one another in a secluded forest clearing, drawing their weapons for what promises to be a brutal fight.
Chatting with another man in an encampment, Ellison reveals he is headed to a mysterious location out west called Horizon.
With more than 150,000 acres open and available for the taking, Horizon is ‘the place I might be able to see myself,’ Ellison shares.
‘You and I are standing guard on one of the last open spaces,’ declares Colonel Houghton of the Union Army, played by Danny Huston.
Early in the trailer, Ellison comes face to face with Caleb Sykes (Jamie Campbell Bower), a young long-haired man who emerges as his enemy
Sykes confronts Ellison and scrutinizes his face, deciding he ‘ain’t from here’ and asking him menacingly: ‘Something you wanna say?’
By way of warning, he adds: ‘I will tell you this – in these territories, men’ll come try you,’ saying with foreboding: ‘They will take from you until you are wiped clean from this land’
As Sykes sounds Ellison off, footage plays of a ruined church, a burned-out town and a hair-raising carriage chase that involves gunfire
Ellison and Sykes eventually face off against one another in a secluded forest clearing, drawing their weapons for what promises to be a brutal fight
‘You just have to stand at the river and you can see what the men and the women up there see. That’s what drove us across the ocean to this country in the first place – hope,’ the military officer muses.
Along the way, Ellison confronts a number of rough-hewn, mysterious personalities, including Will Patton’s forbidding Owen Kittredge.
Luke Wilson briefly appears as Matthew Van Weyden, with Jenna Malone as a stern frontierswoman who variously goes by Ellen or Lucy.
Landlady Frances Kittridge (Sienna Miller) is then seen having a meaningful conversation with First Lt. Trent Gephardt (Sam Worthington).
Sexual tension thrums between them as Frances approaches Trent and says: ‘Lieutenant! There’s no reason for you to stay here – and here you are.’
Trent takes a hard-nosed approach to the Union soldiers under his command, giving them his unvarnished view of the Native Americans and settlers they will meet.
‘The men who hunt this land, they’re not gonna share it with you,’ the lieutenant says. ‘What you build, they will burn down.’
His predictions appear to be borne out when various pioneers are seen painstakingly building a village – only for a nighttime raid to send the whole place up in flames.
Chatting with another man in an encampment, Ellison reveals he is headed to a mysterious location out west called Horizon
With more than 150,000 acres open and available for the taking, Horizon is ‘the place I might be able to see myself,’ Ellison shares
‘You and I are standing guard on one of the last open spaces,’ declares Colonel Houghton of the Union Army, played by Danny Huston
‘You just have to stand at the river and you can see what the men and the women up there see. That’s what drove us across the ocean to this country in the first place – hope,’ it is heard
Along the way, Ellison confronts a number of rough-hewn, mysterious personalities, including Will Patton’s forbidding Owen Kittredge
Luke Wilson (left) briefly appears as Matthew Van Weyden, with Jenna Malone (right) as a stern frontierswoman who variously goes by Ellen or Lucy
Landlady Frances Kittridge (Sienna Miller) is then seen having a meaningful conversation with First Lt. Trent Gephardt (Sam Worthington)
Sexual tension thrums between them as Frances approaches Trent and says: ‘Lieutenant! There’s no reason for you to stay here – and here you are’
‘We just gotta keep moving,’ Ellison says determinedly, riding off into the countryside with Abbey Lee’s character Marigold.
Flashes of mysterious action unfold throughout the trailer, including a love scene in a tent that takes place under cover of darkness.
Ellison also finds himself locked in a gun battle across the plains, trying to fix his aim on a horseman who fires at him while riding towards him at breakneck speed.
At the end of a sneak peek, Ellison beats up a mystery man in a cow pen for taunting him: ‘You better be careful – someone’s gonna take that gun and rap you with it.’
After a scheduled premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this month, the movie series set to be released in two chapters on June 28 and August 16.
The first movie chronicles a 15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west.
In June 2023 DailyMail.com revealed the Oscar-winner had mortgaged a 10-acre plot of prime undeveloped coastline – where he had planned to build a new family home – in order to finance the development of Horizon.
‘I’ve mortgaged 10 acres on the water in Santa Barbara where I was going to build my last house,’ he told Deadline during a recent interview. ‘But I did it without a thought. It has thrown my accountant into a f**king conniption fit. But it’s my life, and I believe in the idea and the story.’
Trent takes a hard-nosed approach to the Union soldiers under his command, giving them his unvarnished view of the Native Americans and settlers they will meet
‘The men who hunt this land, they’re not gonna share it with you,’ the lieutenant says: ‘What you build, they will burn down’
His predictions appear to be borne out when various pioneers are seen painstakingly building a village – only for a nighttime raid to send the whole place up in flames
Flashes of mysterious action unfold throughout the trailer, including a love scene in a tent that takes place under cover of darkness
Costner, who has been desperately trying to bring the four-part movie series to life for more than 30 years now, is thought to have personally raised up to $50 million of Horizon’s $100 million budget with the move.
‘I’ll tell you what. I’m never gonna do this again. I’m never putting my f***ing money in another movie after these four,’ he fumed.
Costner is said to have a net worth of around $250 million and was collecting a reported $1.5 million per episode of his hit show Yellowstone, making him the best-paid actor on TV.
When he introduced an earlier trailer during a Zoom call with reporters earlier this year he shared: ‘There was a great injustice incurred in the West, but it doesn’t minimize the courage it took for my ancestors to actually cut loose and go there.
‘And I recognize the resourcefulness it took, the bravery it took, to leave and make this march across this country.’
This comes after the actor – who plays John Dutton III in the Taylor Sheridan series Yellowstone, claims he honored his contract despite ongoing rumors and discusses the delay of the show’s finale, as Season 5 ended prematurely.
Allegedly, a feud between Costner and Sheridan caused the hold up. Paramount claimed Costner refused to shoot more episodes, instead promoting his new film franchise, Horizon, while Costner asserts Paramount sought contract amendments due to Sheridan’s delayed scriptwriting.
‘There was no script,’ Costner told Deadline on Tuesday. ‘And then things imploded. You’ve been reading one version [of the show’s drama] for a year and a half.’
‘We just gotta keep moving,’ Ellison says determinedly, riding off into the countryside with Abbey Lee’s character Marigold
Ellison also finds himself locked in a gun battle across the plains, trying to fix his aim on a horseman who fires at him while riding towards him at breakneck speed
At the end of a sneak peek, Ellison beats up a mystery man in a cow pen for taunting him: ‘You better be careful – someone’s gonna take that gun and rap you with it’
After a scheduled premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this month, the movie series set to be released in two chapters on June 28 and August 16
He added: ‘I have taken a beating from those f****** guys and I know a lot of times where it’s coming from. I just elected not to get into that. But if you know me well enough, I made Yellowstone the first priority, and to insinuate anything else would be wrong.’
Costner, who revealed he has not filmed the remaining episodes of Season 5, also defended Sheridan, claiming, ‘I did not initiate any of those things. They did. They were doing a tap dance and this poor guy was also having to write so much. And I don’t know why they didn’t stick up for me.’
After the first half of the fifth season of Yellowstone aired late last year, the show went on hiatus for the holidays. Their return to filming, originally slated for the beginning of the year, was postponed to sometime this summer, with no announced premiere date.
Since Yellowstone went on hiatus, Costner has borne the brunt of the blame.
‘I didn’t have to answer the slings and arrows over the last year and a half, because I’ve just been busy working. They’ve been pretty slick about keeping their hands off; nobody was ever on the record.’
However, rumors claimed he only wanted to work for one week to film the rest of the episodes. Costner contends that Paramount deceived him.
‘I haven’t felt good about it the last year, what with the way they’ve talked about it,’ he told Deadline. ‘It wasn’t truthful.’
‘So now I’m talking a little bit about what the real truth of it was. I made a contract for seasons five, six and seven. In February, after a two- or three-month negotiation, they made another contract. They wanted to redo that one, and instead of seasons six and seven, it was 5A and 5B, and maybe we’ll do six. They weren’t able to make those.’
The first movie chronicles a 15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west
In June 2023 DailyMail.com revealed the Oscar-winner had mortgaged a 10-acre plot of prime undeveloped coastline in order to finance the development of Horizon
‘There was a great injustice incurred in the West, but it doesn’t minimize the courage it took for my ancestors to actually cut loose and go there,’ Costner said in an interview
He went to to say he was willing to film Horizon around the Yellowstone schedule but the timeline kept changing.
‘Horizon was set in the middle, but Yellowstone was first position. I fit [Horizon] into the gaps. They just kept moving their gaps.’
Costner, amid considerable scrutiny regarding the show’s future, acknowledged feeling ‘bothered’ by the production’s apparent lack of support.
He added: ‘They were silent and that bothered me in the world of how you do things. Why don’t you stick up for me? I went and sold this thing for you. I was going to only do one season. I made it for three. I fulfilled three.
‘So I went from one to three, then I did a fourth one for them and they wanted to do three more. So I made the contract to do that. They imploded. I had a contract to do five, six and seven. I was contracted to do that. There’s nothing I could have done to get out of that, nor was I trying to just figure out how, when we started.
‘I left my movie [Horizon] to be on time for them for 5B,’ Costner continued. ‘I left exactly when they wanted, and it made it hard on me.’
However, he alleged that the crux of the issue lay in the absence of scripts for the final stretch of Yellowstone episodes.
‘It turns out they didn’t have the scripts for 5B. They needed four more days just to complete the first eight episodes. I left early to give them what they needed to have a complete eight, and I felt bad that the audience didn’t get 10. They didn’t have the scripts for anything else.’
‘So, what you read in the end was that I said, “Well, look, I’m doing my movie. If you want me to work a week because you want to kill me or whatever else, I can give you a week.” I really didn’t have that week to give them, but I said, I’ll do that. And then they [spun that] into, I only wanted to work a week.’
!['I haven’t felt good about it the last year, what with the way they’ve talked about [his Yellowstone exit],' he told Deadline. 'It wasn’t truthful'; still from Yellowstone with Kelly Reilly](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/05/14/21/84870041-13418297-image-a-4_1715720162449.jpg "Kevin Costner Takes on America in New Trailer for Horizon: An American Saga, a $100M risk for the actor 61")
‘I haven’t felt good about it the last year, what with the way they’ve talked about [his Yellowstone exit],’ he told Deadline. ‘It wasn’t truthful’; still from Yellowstone with Kelly Reilly
When asked if things could be worked out if he sat down ‘man-to-man’ with Sheridan, Costner argued: ‘Don’t talk to me about man-to-man,’; Costner and Taylor Sheridan in 2018
Costner also hinted at Sheridan being stretched thin at Paramount, suggesting it as the reason for running out of scripts for the latter half of Yellowstone season 5.
Apart from his involvement in the popular Western, Sheridan oversees a multitude of projects including Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, Special Ops: Lioness, and Lawman: Bass Reeves, alongside Yellowstone spin-offs like 1883 and 1923.
Reportedly, Paramount also intends to launch a new Yellowstone sequel/spin-off starring Matthew McConaughey.
‘There’s a lot of product they were putting out,’ Costner said. ‘[Yellowstone] didn’t have the scripts. And they wrote these other three shows. They don’t ever talk about that.’
When asked if things could be worked out if he sat down ‘man-to-man’ with Sheridan, Costner argued: ‘Don’t talk to me about man-to-man.’
Despite the drama, Costner hasn’t closed the door on returning to Yellowstone; still from Yellowstone
‘I was straight up with him and he said what we would do and I believed him and we didn’t get there,’ he said.
Despite the drama, Costner hasn’t closed the door on returning to Yellowstone.
‘I’m very open to coming back. If they’ve got so many other things going on, maybe this circles back and it’s a really cool two seasons,’ he said.
‘Or end it, if the writing’s there and I’m happy with it. I’m open to that. But I took a beating over these guys not speaking up for me and allowing crazy stories to come out.’
