Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga blazes a trail at CinemaCon with an extended look at the Western epic

Last Updated on April 11, 2024

Hold onto your horses, folks! Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga is riding into CinemaCon 2024 to share the latest about the Yellowstone and Dances With Wolves star’s Western epic. On Monday, we learned the first part of Horizon: An American Saga, which will debut at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19. Still, attendees moseying into CinemaCon got a new look at the sprawling drama of how settlers won the West.

During the Warner Bros. panel, Costner addressed the CinemaCon crowd, saying the movie is a bit about the promise of America. The idea was that if you were mean enough, tough enough, you could take what you wanted, but in the process, you stepped on people who had been here for 1000 years. But the film does not pass judgment, and that story, to him, was drama.

Speaking about making the movie, Costner said he likes “Journey” movies. He doesn’t like “plot movies” and prefers to take the ride. The movie covers a period of 12 years, from before the Civil War to during it (but it’s not about the Civil War). He notes that the West didn’t last long. It was over when the war ended.

Costner began work on Horizon in 1988. He has more movies planned, and the character he invented in 1988 was so important to him that he named his son after him (Hayes). His character is about a drifter who wants to find a home. He hopes the movies can be a big franchise and that years from now, people can binge-watch hours of Horizon in theaters.

Costner then screened an extended look at Horizon: An American Saga Part 1 and Part 2. Our editor-in-chief, Chris Bumbray, says Horizon truly looks like an epic. The footage he saw makes the movie look like an old-fashioned adventure. Still, it’s nuanced and acknowledges the danger of settling the West, the conflicts between the weak and the strong, the homesteaders and Native Americans, and more. The films highlight how many settlers left their families to join the war, leaving them to fend for themselves. The focus is on two stories. One is Costner, who is a drifter who takes in a prostitute (Abbey Lee) and her baby, while Sienna Miller and Sam Worthington are settlers separated by the war.

In addition to directing and starring in the two-film saga, Kevin Costner also produced the project and co-wrote the script alongside Jon Baird. “In the great tradition of Warner Bros. Pictures’ iconic Westerns, Horizon: An American Saga explores the lure of the Old West and how it was won—and lost—through the blood, sweat, and tears of many,” reads the official synopsis. “Spanning the four years of the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, Kevin Costner’s ambitious cinematic adventure will take audiences on an emotional journey across a country at war with itself, experienced through the lens of families, friends, and foes all attempting to discover what it truly means to be the United States of America.” Despite the project playing a role in his departure from Yellowstone, I think a lot of fans are very excited about this one.

Horizon also boasts quite the epic ensemble cast, which includes (take a deep breath here) Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, Jena Malone, Danny Huston, Michael Rooker, Will Patton, Owen Crow Shoe, Tatanka Means, Ella Hunt, Tim Guinee, Colin Cunningham, Scott Haze, Tom Payne, Abbey Lee, Georgia MacPhail, Douglas Smith, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jamie Campbell Bower, Alejandro Edda, Wasé Winyan Chief, Michael Anganaro, Angus Macfadyen, Jon Beavers, Alex Nibley, Kathleen Quinlan, Etienne Kellici, Amos Jason Charging Cloud, Bodhi Okuma Linton, Gregory Cruz, James Russo, Jeff Fahey, David O’Hara, Chris Conner, Leroy M. Silva, Bernardo Velasco, Tom Everett, Glynn Turman, and more. Phew.

The first part of Horizon: An America Saga will be released in theaters on June 28th, followed by the second part on August 16th.