Everything is epic about actor-director Kevin Costner’s epic western film series, Horizon: An American Saga, from the vision to the physical script.
“It broke the desk when we put them on there because of the weight,” Sienna Miller revealed with a laugh as we discussed the first entry in the tetralogy. “They were huge. When I got them, I thought it must be a TV series because all four scripts were so dense and thoughtful and had beautiful dialogue. They were unlike anything I’d ever seen before. It was a long read, so I broke it up a little. I’m being honest. You couldn’t do those four in one sitting.”
The first entry, Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter One, will land in theaters on Friday, June 28, 2024. Costner, Miller, and Sam Worthington lead a stellar ensemble cast tasked with telling the multifaceted story that spans 15 years and chronicles the pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West. Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter One is not available to stream.
While Westerns and musicals were the cornerstone genres of Hollywood’s golden age, they can sometimes be a hard sell for modern audiences. That said, Worthington believes if anyone can engage them, Costner can.
“The weirdest, or the greatest, perspective Kevin has with Horizon is that there’s a novelistic approach to it. When I read it, it felt like a Dickens novel; there were so many characters,” the Avatar actor enthused. “Horizon is the main character, this town or ideal that they’re seeking, and that’s a very interesting way in because it’s not your general Western. It’s more like you’re looking at the humanity of how America was formed, from all different sides, from the Indigenous side to the early settlers, so taking that approach allows audiences into it more than it being genre-driven or plot-driven. It’s a journey movie.”
While Costner, who also co-wrote the quadrilogy, mortgaged his California estate to fund the $100 million a piece project, production was more akin to an indie film, so the cast and crew hustled to make every cent count.
“I think Kevin likes to work that way,” Miller said. “He’s quite restless and clearly loves being on a set. It was like guerilla-style filmmaking. There were no executives, so it was like the kids were being set free. If the light was beautiful over in another canyon, we’d jump on quad bikes, go over there, and grab that light; a dust storm would roll in, or a lightning storm would attack the set, so at times, it was chaos, but in the most incredible way.”
“You had to be flexible and malleable in a way that, honestly, a studio probably would have shut us down times that Kevin was like, ‘We got this!’ He’s such a tireless leader, and he believes in this so much, enough to remortgage his house. Kevin’s passion is extremely contagious. You definitely feel like you want to show up for that guy because he’s living his dream.”
Worthington added, “He shot it in 52 days. To put that into perspective, Dances with Wolves was shot in over 100 days, so he’s shooting two movies in 52 days. It’s an incredible achievement. That requires everybody, not only actors but also the crew, to be in the middle of the desert, the middle of nowhere. The crews, catering, horse wranglers, and all these people are building sets and these authentic costumes and things like that, so it was like an indie in that respect.”
“You can’t waste time, and there’s not enough money to go around, but that gives it a certain energy. As an actor, it doesn’t give you added responsibility because we all come from indie backgrounds, but it’s interesting because we understand the pace and the speed it takes to get that done. It’s more ambitious, and that’s what you enjoy.”
Miller, also known for her standout performances in films such as Layer Cake, American Sniper, and American Woman, relished playing her character, Frances Kittredge. She’s just one of the female characters that Costner has pushed to the forefront of Horizon‘s core narrative.
“Women are the reason the country goes forward,” he told People magazine. “They were taken, often against their own wishes. They were taken advantage of, and they were resilient. I couldn’t tell the story unless it revolved around them.”
The actress instantly saw that on the pages of the script and recognized it as something rarely found in the genre.
“Frances is incredibly formidable. Women are the reason the world moves forward and are often very underrepresented in historical stories like this,” Miller told me. “None of it would have been possible without the contribution of women, so it feels disingenuous to make a Western and not include that side of things. My character is dealt a really bad hand. She’s in a place that she wouldn’t have chosen to come to but, of course, followed her husband. This was his dream, and it all goes horribly wrong, but she has no choice but to get up, dust yourself off, and look forward. That resilience is intrinsic in women. It was nice to celebrate that on film.”
Audiences won’t have to wait long for the second entry in the four-film opus. Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter Two will arrive in theaters on Friday, August 16, 2024.
“A lot of the foundations are laid in this first film, and I think everything comes together,” Miller explained. “Kevin’s making something so ambitious, but in thinking about America as the behemoth that it is today, and how young it is from when people settled, what an exciting thing it is to understand the origin of how this happened. It’s kind of crazy.”
Worthington added, “America is a country built on violence and turmoil, but was forged by hope. That’s how I looked at it. They are conflicting ideas of ‘We’re going to go forth and achieve greatness but it’s at the expense of the settlers that go on this crazy journey and the Indigenous who we are going to ride over the top of.’ That’s the conflict of America. There is that great thing of saying that America is this great idea of a country.”
“It’s still forming, even to this day. If you want any movie to reflect who you are now, whether it’s a historical movie or a sci-fi movie, it has to be relevant to who we are at this moment. Kevin was raised in Americana, believes in America, and believes in how great this country can be, so he’s reflecting that in this tale, and he does it brilliantly.”
