Yellowstone star Kevin Costner’s sprawling film Horizon is set to start production in Utah on Aug. 29. The film promises to be an epic journey through the American West. Costner will direct, and casting for the film will kick off next month.
Horizon’s plotline runs through a complex and variegated 15-year period of pre- to post-Civil War exploration and settlement of the American West, according to Deadline. This has been a longstanding passion project for Costner, who is a seasoned veteran when it comes to Western storytelling.
“America’s expansion into the west was one that was fraught with peril and intrigue, from the natural elements, to the interactions with the indigenous peoples who lived on the land, and the determination and at many times ruthlessness of those who sought to settle it,” Costner told Deadline in a statement. “Horizon tells the story of that journey in an honest and forthcoming way, highlighting the points of view and consequences of the characters life and death decisions.”
Horizon Is Already Drawing Comparisons to Dances with Wolves
Kevin Costner’s new film is already drawing comparisons to Dances with Wolves, the film that won him an Oscar for Best Director in 1991. But this time around will be a little different.Hopefully, it will be without the neophyte jitters that Costner admitted to having when filming Dances with Wolves. It was his first time in the director’s chair. And Costner wasn’t sure until he saw the dailies that this thing he’d put together was something resembling a movie.
“I was nervous enough being a director on it,” Costner told Yahoo Entertainment in 2014. “And I remember the very first day, the very first shot I set up was even wrong. That’s the shot you’re supposed to get right, the first shot, because the whole crew’s watching you. Like, ‘Does he know what he’s doing?’”
“And I really debated whether I should say that, or just shoot it wrong, so I didn’t look bad,” Costner confessed. Of course, the artist in him triumphed over his pride and he started over to get it right. Still, he was anxious until he finally saw the dailies. “I went, ‘This looks like a movie.’ I was desperately hoping that it would. I don’t know, I had never done one,” he said.
Kevin Costner and Yellowstone Castmates Get SAG Award Nomination
Meanwhile, Costner and his castmates on Yellowstone are finally getting some respect where it counts: the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), which recently nominated the group for its Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series award.
“We’ve got an incredible group of actors on #Yellowstone,” Costner posted to Instagram upon learning of the nomination. “Thank you @sagawards for the nomination!”
The SAG Award nomination represents recognition from the actors’ peers in the industry for all their hard work and dedication. And it comes after several years of crickets from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which gives out the Emmy Awards, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which distributes the Golden Globe Awards.
The SAG Award nominations are decided by two committees of about 2,100 members each. The general membership of SAG-AFTRA, which numbers more than 160,000, votes to decide the winners.
So this award nomination represents a broad-based nod to the Yellowstone cast that in some ways means more.But whether the cast wins the award or not, they’ve already got a devoted fanbase of record-breaking size. And those fans will be waiting to watch what Costner does next.