Mostly, though, he has had to answer many iterations of the question “why?” Why would Costner make this leap of faith, knowing the longevity of the commitment, the stress and complications it would involve, and the possible financial loss? Perhaps one of the few people on the planet who could possibly understand is Francis Ford Coppola, who, like Costner, unveiled his own expensive passion project at Cannes this year: Megalopolis.
“When you do go into the great unknown, you don’t want to say, ‘Oh, I wish I had done this or that.’ You want to say, ‘I got to do it,’” the filmmaker told Deadline during a moderated conversation with Costner. The Horizon filmmaker agreed: “That’s how I feel about it.”
Costner filming Horizon.By Richard Foreman/Warner Bros.
But unlike Coppola, Costner is not close to being done with his gamble. He still has to find the financing to complete the franchise. And regardless of what happens when Chapter 1 bows at the box office, Costner has vowed to complete the series. “I know by hook or by crook, I’m going to make three,” he told IndieWire. “And by hook or by crook, I’m going to make four.”
Though he’s made it seem as though he will make these films by any means necessary, a dud weekend will make it even more difficult for him to find additional financing for a franchise already undesired by studios. While Costner told VF that he was already working on the third Horizon film—fighting for more days of shooting—Horizon costar Sienna Miller told VF that filming for the third installment, which she said would supposedly be happening between August and November, had not yet been confirmed.
This weekend’s Horizon premiere will prove something else: whether Costner’s off-screen life is more interesting to audiences than the story he’s labored to put onscreen. The making of the film coincided with the messy dissolution of his second marriage, to Christine Baumgartner, with whom he shares three children. The divorce made headlines last year when Baumgartner requested more than $150,000 per month in child support, and the timing means that Costner has had to answer questions about surviving this personal chapter while promoting Horizon. “That’s a crushing moment,” the filmmaker told Gayle King this week in reference to his divorce, which was finalized in February. “It’s powerful. It hurt. But I go forward.” When asked point-blank by GQ whether the divorce was precipitated by Horizon, or the circumstances around its making, Costner said, “No, they’re not related.”
