Kevin Costner is coming back to theaters next summer, with double the Western goodness for fans. Warner Bros. revealed on Thursday that “Horizon: An American Saga” will be a two-part western epic, with both installments releasing in theaters next summer. “Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1” will open on June 28 while “Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 2” will arrive in theaters on Aug. 16.
The two-part feature, produced by Costner, Howard Kaplan and Mark Gillard, marks the filmmaker’s first feature-film directorial effort since his much-acclaimed “Open Range” in 2003. These two films star the “Yellowstone” icon alongside Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Fahey, Will Patton, Tatanka Means, Owen Crow Shoe, Ella Hunt and Jamie Campbell Bower.
Yes, this was the multi-part film that caused consternation and on-set melodrama which eventually led to Costner leaving Taylor Sheridan’s much-watched episodic modern-day western soap opera after the first half of its fifth season. And this Warner Bros. Discovery and New Line Cinema theatrical double feature is likely intended to cash in on the “Yellowstone” fandom.
Yes, Costner was already a movie star before the show launched on the Paramount Network, his stardom is part of what made the initial season must-see TV for fans. But the show has introduced (or reintroduced) the star of “JFK,” “The Bodyguard,” and “Field of Dreams” to fans young and old.
The close-together release dates for the two chapters is actually pretty close to what Fox (now 20th Century Studios) wanted to do with the “Fear Street” trilogy before the company was sold to Disney and the trilogy was sent to Netflix. The plan was to release one film per month in 2020, but the streaming giant grabbed the project and released one per week for three weeks.
As the calendar currently stands, “Horizon: An American Saga” will now open concurrently with (the likely-to-be-delayed) “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part II” and just days before Illumination’s “Despicable Me 4. The second chapter is currently set to open alongside 20th Century Fox’s “Alien: Romulus” to essentially close out the summer movie season.
Warner Bros. has released a brief announcement teaser alongside a first-look poster.
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