SEATTLE — He may not return to “Yellowstone,” but Kevin Costner hits the open range in new movie “Horizon: An American Saga” this week.
And it’s personal.
Costner started working on the idea back in 1988 - a sweeping, multi-year epic set on the American frontier. The first movie is just one installment in what he intends to be a four-part saga.
He served as star, co-writer, director and producer, and invested more than $30 million of his own money into the production.
He also cast one of his children in a small but pivotal role – 15-year-old Hayes appears in a harrowing opening sequence that sets the tone of the film.
Entertainment reporter Kim Holcomb talked to Costner.
HOLCOMB: "My son just graduated from high school, so your son crushed me in this film. I cried twice in the first half hour.”
COSTNER: “In a Western.”
HOLCOMB: “In a Western! What is the one part of that frontier life that really amazes you the most?"
COSTNER: “The people who came west, they didn't know each other. It was not like a good road trip. It was terrible and people just stuck to themselves. They don't know they've been lied to. That piece of paper (advertising the town of Horizon) doesn't exit. That town doesn't exist. They've been lied to. Someone else owns it. So, in a lot of it was a myth. We went on a promise, we went on faith, but it was a 2- or 300-year struggle out there."
HOLCOMB: "I was thinking about ‘The Postman’ watching this movie - shot in Washington State - but also because there are these interesting parallels between the old west and how we sort of how we picture a post-apocalyptic world. What is that element that fascinates you most about these kinds of stories?"
COSTNER: "Generally speaking, there's no law. There's no one to arbitrate your problems but yourself. And so you realize the kinds of personalities you can run up against when all of a sudden they realize there's no law. The worst can come out of them. It brings out the best in somebody else who doesn't want to go down that road but also has to combat that."
HOLCOMB: "This has been your dream for a long time. What will you be doing on the 28th when this movie opens? How are you spending that day?
COSTNER: "I don't know, maybe I'll have to move the phone. It's what I want it to be, it's exactly what I wanted it to be. So is 2. So will 3 be. And I just have a relationship with the audience that it's theirs now. And I wish somebody made a movie like this for me."
HOLCOMB: "Have all of your roads lead to this?”
COSTNER: “I think, when I look back on my life, a lot was leading to this. I don't define my life by the movies. But I won't be defined by a fear of something that I've dreamed I want to do. I don't fall out of love."
“Horizon: An American Saga” is rated R. It opens in theaters on June 28.
Travel and accommodations provided by Warner Bros.
KING 5's Evening celebrates the Northwest. Contact us: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Email.