The second part of Costner’s planned four-movie epic will screen Sept. 7 at the prestigious event.
There’s a new twist in the ongoing story of Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga.
Earlier this month, Costner’s Territory Pictures and distribution partner New Line Cinema announced that Chapter 2 of the planned four-movie Western epic would be bumped from its scheduled Aug. 16 opening date, due in large part to the disappointing boxoffice returns after Chapter 1 opened in theaters on June 28. (A decision, it should be noted, that did not go over well with many C&I readers.)
The new game plan: Part 1 would be made available for rental or purchase earlier than scheduled on Video on Demand (VOD), a New Line spokesman announced, “in order to give audiences a greater opportunity to discover the first installment of Horizon over the coming weeks” before a yet-to-be announced opening for Chapter 2.
Some cynics derided this as a face-saving gesture, and even expressed doubt that Chapter 2 would ever be showcased in cinemas. But the tide may be turning in favor of Costner, who invested much of his own money in his long-cherished dream project.
First, Chapter 1 hit the No. 1 spot on the VOD charts during its first week of release. And on Wednesday, it was announced that Chapter 2 would have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, one of the most prestigious events of its kind in the world.
Specifically, festival director Alberto Barbera explained, Chapter 2 will be shown Sept. 7 in Venice. Earlier the same day, the festival will host a screening of Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1 — which, not incidentally, had its world premiere last May at the renowned Cannes Film Festival, where it received a seven-minute standing ovation.
“It is a great pleasure and honor to host the world premiere of the chapter two of Horizon: An American Saga, alongside its chapter one,” Barbera said in a prepared statement. “This late addition to the lineup of the Venice Film Festival pays a heartfelt and respectful tribute to the visionary project of a great actor and director, who invested himself in the epic reconstruction of the years crucial to the founding of [his] country, digging beyond myth in search of authenticity capable of restoring a piece of history in its complex and contradictory reality.”
Costner added in his own statement: “My dream was always to show Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2 at the Venice Film Festival. “The fact that now they have decided to show Chapter 1 earlier in the day and then the world premiere of Chapter 2 that evening shows not only their belief in how the two films work together but their support of a director’s vision. I’m indebted to Alberto Barbera for his courage and leadership in committing to this cinematic journey.”
Might this inspire Territory Pictures and New Line Cinema to theatrically release in a similar fashion both chapters of Horizon later this year? Who knows? Meanwhile, Costner — who serves as director, co-scriptwriter (with John Baird), and star of the epic Western — currently is filming Chapter 3 on location in Utah, and mapping out plans for production of Chapter 4. The story continues apace.
