(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Sun 2 November 2025 3:00, UK
With nearly four decades of acting and at least 59 films behind him, it’s surprising to realise that Kevin Costner has never appeared playing the same character twice; that was until very recently with his epic Western, Horizon: An American Saga, but let’s just ignore that for now.
In the 45 years prior to his role in Horizon, Costner had avoided sequels and reboots at all costs, and it’s not simply a coincidence.
Unlike many actors trying to get their bag by doing sequels, prequels and reboots, he has refused to return unless he feels like the sequel can fully measure up to the original film. He concludes this might be bad business, but for him, keeping the sanctity of a good character and story is apparently more important. It’s a refreshing approach, and by this point, most people would agree that more actors would do well to follow in his footsteps to save their reputations over making a quick buck, but they probably don’t care anyway.
However, caring very much about how he’s seen, Costner decided it would be creatively fruitful to play the same character more than once for the first time in 2007, even before the American Saga, agreeing that if things worked out correctly, he would do another, even two more films, following Mr Brooks.
Now you might be thinking, Mr Whom, and you’d be forgiven your reaction, because, as it turns out, things weren’t quite as fruitful as Costner believed they could be. Mr Brooks is a psychological thriller following a stand-up citizen with a double life: by day, he’s a successful, caring Portland businessman, by night, he’s a calculated, psychologically disturbed serial killer.
It received mixed reviews and did alright at the box office, but it was originally intended to be a trilogy of movies following the trials and tribulations of the titular Brooks. For the actor, who usually played down-to-earth, everyman types, it was a step out of his comfort zone, and one he thought he could break his rule for.
“That’s how it was presented to me,” he explained, confirming the original plans for the trilogy, “I just said, ‘Look, if what you’re telling me is the truth, then explain to me how it goes’. And when he [director Bruce Evans] did, I saw the logic of it.” And there are inklings of how the follow-up films could be set up: from Demi Moore’s obsessive detective who doesn’t manage to catch the killer, to Brooks’ daughter with similar psychopathic tendencies, there was plenty of material to be picked up.
But the man made it clear that he was waiting to see how things shaped up, just as the studios and box office were, pointing out, “I wanted it to stand on its own, because I didn’t want it to have to do anything other than be what it was. If we are able to get some traction amidst all these tsunamis and waves, I would definitely do another one.”
Sadly, the plentiful breadcrumbs of the first film turned out to be one of the primary reasons that the trilogy never materialised, alongside Costner’s lack of charisma as anything but a bread-and-butter American. Critics and audiences alike panned the film for its convoluted plot, which got in the way of its most interesting storylines, and, in the end, the trilogy was scrapped, with Mr Brooks more or less forgotten in the haze.
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