{"id":209193,"date":"2025-10-08T13:43:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T13:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/209193\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T13:43:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T13:43:11","slug":"inside-kevin-costners-horizon-western-gamble-yellowstone-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/209193\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Kevin Costner&#8217;s Horizon Western Gamble, Yellowstone Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIt began, as so many arguments do, at a kitchen table.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThey were filming on a soundstage in Utah \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/kevin-costner\/\" id=\"auto-tag_kevin-costner_1\" data-tag=\"kevin-costner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kevin Costner<\/a>, Wes Bentley and Kelly Reilly \u2014 playing out another tense exchange in the Dutton family drama\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/yellowstone\/\" id=\"auto-tag_yellowstone_1\" data-tag=\"yellowstone\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Yellowstone<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBut between takes, tensions boiled over. Costner, both star and executive producer, was pushing Bentley to ditch Taylor Sheridan\u2019s script and play the moment\u00a0his\u00a0way. Bentley refused. He told Costner that he had signed up for a Taylor Sheridan show, not a Kevin Costner production.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cKevin didn\u2019t like that, and he lunged at him,\u201d says a source who was present. \u201cNo fists were thrown, but they were in each other\u2019s faces, pushing and shoving and just getting hot until they had to be separated.\u201d Reilly, according to one witness, was in tears. Production briefly shut down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe dust-up \u2014 previously unreported \u2014 was a tipping point on a set already cracking from creative power struggles and bruised egos. But for Costner, it was merely\u00a0the latest unfortunate incident in a long series of unfortunate incidents, a career marked by feuds, walkouts, lawsuits, financing fiascos and a growing reputation for being, as one former colleague put it, \u201cimpossible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThere\u2019s a long list of people in Hollywood who swear they\u2019ll never work with Costner again.\u00a0And they all have their reasons.\u00a0He doesn\u2019t always pay his bills on time \u2014 one since-settled lawsuit alleged hundreds of thousands in unpaid costume fees. He burns through relationships \u2014\u00a0like his longtime producing partner, whom he sued for $15 million.\u00a0He ignores advice, even from folks like Steven Spielberg. He rewrites scripts without warning, overrules directors and on more than one occasion has clashed with his co-stars \u2014 including Clint Eastwood, Kurt Russell \u2026 and Wes Bentley.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAll of which raises an obvious question, the one being whispered all across Hollywood right now, even among former allies: What\u2019s going on with Kevin Costner? \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/27Acov_Costner_hi_res-2025.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"435\" width=\"336\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIllustration by Neil Jamieson<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe 70-year-old star has always swung for the fences \u2014 often literally, in pastoral baseball idylls like Bull Durham and Field of Dreams \u2014 with bold, risky choices. And Hollywood has counted him out before, only to be surprised by the resilience of his star power. But now, in the twilight of his career,\u00a0the comebacks are getting harder to come by. The Oscar-winning director and actor\u00a0with the most iconic American screen presence since Gary Cooper\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the guy responsible for the line, \u201cIf you build it, they will come,\u201d who once carried box office megahits like\u00a0The Bodyguard\u00a0\u2014\u00a0is now brawling with his castmates, getting sued by his crewmembers and, in recent months, giving paid keynote speeches at bakery and veterinarian\u00a0conventions. And behind it all, according to several insiders, are power struggles playing out far from the spotlight \u2014 ones that some say have left even Costner himself in the dark.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s sad, and that\u2019s the only thing I can think of,\u201d says a source who\u2019s worked with Costner for over a decade. \u201cI think he got lost in the ether and to this day, I just don\u2019t get it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t***<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tDances With Wolves\u00a0had all the makings of an epic disaster. For starters, it was a Western, considered box office poison at the time. But there were also budget overruns, dangerous working conditions and a first-time director in Costner \u2014 also producing and starring in the film \u2014 who seemed entirely over his head. Before it was released in 1990, Hollywood wags were dismissing it as \u201cKevin\u2019s Gate,\u201d a none-too-subtle nod to 1981\u2019s Heaven\u2019s Gate, one of the biggest bombs in box office history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBut, of course, the naysayers had it all wrong. After Costner cobbled together its $22 million budget without any major studio investment \u2014 Orion Pictures reportedly wrote a check for $11 million while Costner put in $2.5 million of his own money \u2014\u00a0Dances With Wolves\u00a0became a decade-defining hit, grossing\u00a0$424 million, ultimately going on to win seven Academy Awards, including best picture, best director and best adapted screenplay.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MSDDAWI_EC016-EMBED-2025.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"678\" width=\"1000\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tCostner in Dances With Wolves. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIt was a cultural phenomenon that single-handedly revived Westerns as a genre and transformed Costner into one of Hollywood\u2019s most bankable stars. Time magazine proclaimed him \u201cThe New American hero.\u201d A year later, Rolling Stone put him on its cover under the headline: \u201cAn American Classic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tCostner quickly capitalized on the moment, following up with a remarkable string of hits, starting with\u00a0Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,\u00a0which came out six months after Wolves and grossed $390 million, making it the third-highest-grossing film of that year. That was followed\u00a0up by Oliver Stone\u2019s historical drama JFK, which grossed $205 million\u00a0on a $40 million budget. Then came\u00a0The Bodyguard,\u00a0which co-starred Whitney Houston, and which grossed $411 million worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1992.\u00a0Suddenly, Costner was considered \u2014 alongside Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis \u2014 one of the biggest movie stars in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThen came\u00a0Waterworld.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIn hindsight, it\u2019s easy to see that the 1995 postapocalyptic action film in which Costner plays a\u00a0mutated mariner living on the fringes of a water-soaked world was a debacle waiting to happen. In fact, at the time, Costner was being warned by no less an oracle than Steven Spielberg. The guy who shot Jaws\u00a0had reportedly advised Costner and director Kevin Reynolds to avoid filming on the open sea at all costs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBut the warning went ignored and Waterworld \u2014 with a budget of $175 million, then the most expensive movie ever made \u2014 began shooting around the Big Island of Hawaii in 1994. The production was plagued by hurricanes, tsunami warnings, stinging jellyfish and several injuries \u2014 including Costner, who almost died while riding out a storm stranded atop a mast after his safety line had snapped. Things got even worse when the film finally opened on July 28, 1995; it became one of the biggest flops since \u2026 well,\u00a0Heaven\u2019s Gate.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MSDWATE_EC0022-EMBED-2025.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"673\" width=\"1000\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tCostner in Waterworld with Jeanne Tripplehorn and Tina Majorino. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUniversal Pictures\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tTurns out, that was just the beginning of what would become a long, slow slide for Costner. Two years, later, he released yet another postapocalyptic adventure film,\u00a0The Postman,\u00a0which Costner directed, produced and starred in.\u00a0That expensive film also flopped at the box office and was widely panned (it didn\u2019t help that\u00a0The Postman\u00a0opened on the same day as\u00a0Titanic).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tNeither Waterworld nor Postman turned out to be a career killer, but the sheen was diminished. Costner was still a movie star, but he was no longer being offered blank checks and full creative control. He\u00a0continued to work as an actor in dozens of films across multiple genres over the next several decades, in movies like Draft Day, The Guardian, Thirteen Days and Swing Vote. He even occasionally directed again \u2014 on much smaller-budget projects like the 2003 Western Open Range, in which he co-starred alongside Robert Duvall.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tStill, what Costner couldn\u2019t shake was a reputation for being difficult. He reportedly clashed with Clint Eastwood over creative differences on the set of the 1993 crime thriller\u00a0A Perfect World, which Eastwood directed. He also reportedly clashed with Kurt Russell on the set of\u00a03000 Miles to Graceland\u00a0\u2014 yet again over creative differences. Even his friends would sometimes fall under his ire, including his longtime producing partner\u00a0Jim Wilson, who\u2019s credited on eight of his films, including Wyatt Earp, The Bodyguard, Message in a Bottle and Dances With Wolves. Costner sued him in L.A. Superior Court\u00a0for $15 million in 2021 over a dispute involving Good Ones Production, the company he and Wilson formed in the 1990s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cThe word difficult\u00a0gets used a lot,\u201d says Rick Nicita, who represented Costner from 2002 to 2008 before Nicita retired from agenting as a partner at CAA (in the 1990s Costner was represented by Mike Ovitz). \u201cIt can mean someone who won\u2019t come out of their trailer, or someone who doesn\u2019t know their lines, or is rude.\u00a0That\u2019s not Kevin. He\u00a0wanted what he wanted and knew what he wanted and if he didn\u2019t get it \u2026 well, he was never a great compromiser. It\u2019s a firm belief in himself and a confidence that to some can play as arrogance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MSDPOST_EC033.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"2040\" width=\"3000\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tCostner in The Postman. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWarner Bros.\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tCostner has never been an industry schmoozer. He\u2019s lived mostly in a bluff-top oceanfront compound in Santa Barbara and at his 160-acre ranch in Aspen \u2014 by himself, since his divorce from second wife Christine Baumgartner (with whom he has three children; he has four others with two previous partners). Although he\u2019s said to be something of a loner, he is known to be an adventuresome voyager, traveling the globe to dive for shipwrecks. He\u2019s also a country music fan, with his own band, Kevin Costner &amp; Modern West, made up mostly of session musicians he\u2019s assembled over the years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tHe\u2019s said to take his counsel from a small, close-knit circle,  including businessman Rod Lake, who\u2019s dabbled in film production and still has faith in Costner\u2019s vision\u00a0(\u201cHe is certainly focused on finishing what he started with\u00a0the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/horizon\/\" id=\"auto-tag_horizon_1\" data-tag=\"horizon\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Horizon<\/a> series,\u201d\u00a0he tells THR). But his primary current consigliere is Howard Kaplan, a former Price Waterhouse accountant he met in 2009, around when Costner was making The Company Men with Ben Affleck, and who\u00a0would resurface in Costner\u2019s life years later \u2014 and who some of Costner\u2019s friends believe wields a powerful influence over Costner\u2019s professional life. But more about him later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIn 2010, Costner left CAA and signed with WME, where he\u2019s currently represented, but Nicita has stayed in touch with him over the years. \u201cNothing that\u2019s happened surprises me because Kevin firmly believes in himself,\u201d he goes on. \u201cHe thinks he can will things into happening because he could, and he did. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s changed. What happened is the circumstances no longer allow for that. I\u2019ve never known him to play the angles \u2014 it\u2019s all fast balls down the middle. It\u2019s just that the strike zone has\u00a0gotten smaller. But I would never write him off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIndeed, shortly after the 2016 historical drama\u00a0Hidden Figures\u00a0\u2014 in which Costner played neither a cowboy nor a water-faring mutant but a NASA scientist \u2014 the actor landed that rarest of opportunities in Hollywood, a shot at redemption.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tOf course, at the time, nobody knew what a phenomenon Yellowstone would become. But when it was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/tv\/tv-news\/kevin-costner-star-taylor-sheridan-drama-paramount-network-1003521\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced<\/a>\u00a0that Costner had signed on to play the role of John Dutton, it set the stage for his return to superstardom, on an epic Western no less. (Sheridan had originally envisioned Robert Redford for the role, but when the show jumped from HBO to Paramount, the role went to Costner.) The pairing of Costner with Sheridan \u2014 who was 15 years younger \u2014 was immediately intriguing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tSheridan had burst on the scene with\u00a0Sicario, a gritty crime thriller about drug cartels set on the U.S.-Mexico border, which was followed up by the well-received Western crime drama\u00a0Hell or High Water. It\u2019s not hard to see parallels between Sheridan and Costner. Both started out as actors before finding their ways toward writing, directing and producing (in Sheridan\u2019s case, that was out of necessity, as he never found success as an actor). Both are ruggedly handsome, gruff and not short on ego. Most of all, both have a deep and abiding affinity for frontier life and Westerns.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/TCDYELL_PT007_LE_upscale_balanced_x2-EMBED-2025.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"616\" width=\"1000\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tA scene from Yellowstone featuring (from left) Kelly Reilly, Kevin Costner, Luke Grimes and Wes Bentley. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEmerson Miller\/Paramount Network\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe first season of Yellowstone went smoothly enough. Other than Costner, the show was largely populated with relatively unknown actors \u2014 Costner was clearly the big fish in this smallish pond. But the extraordinary success of the first two seasons shifted\u00a0the power dynamics on the set in Sheridan\u2019s favor. The cast, most of whom owed their newly buzzing careers to the showrunner, were extremely loyal to Sheridan and 101 Studios, while Paramount executives were desperate to have Sheridan\u2019s content for Paramount+, their new streaming app. As the seasons wore on,\u00a0Costner became an increasingly polarizing figure, and certain castmembers were growing fed up with what several sources described as Costner\u2019s \u201cdiva-like\u201d imperiousness.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cThe incident with Wes was the line in the sand. Everything was different after that,\u201d says another source who was also present for the fight with Bentley. \u201cEveryone loved Wes and so that really made Taylor upset. Kevin and Taylor butted heads from there on out. It got very awkward.\u201d (A spokesperson for Bentley confirmed the altercation, calling it a \u201cwork related argument during an emotional and physically tough scene,\u201d which was \u201cdiscussed and resolved.\u201d Costner\u2019s spokesperson declined to comment on the near fisticuffs.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tOthers say things got awkward when\u00a01883, a Yellowstone spinoff that tells\u00a0the origin story of the Dutton family, was announced and went into production.\u00a0Around the same time, Costner had been circulating the script for the first installment for his own ambitious Horizon vision, a project he had been pitching around town since way back in 1988. This was Costner\u2019s white whale, a $200 million Western that made Dances With Wolves look like a Sundance indie. Costner\u2019s epic would be not one, not two, but four films set in the post-Civil War American West, spanning a 12-year period.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe problem was that no one wanted it. \u201cNobody was jumping to buy [Costner\u2019s] odyssey and after\u00a01883, he wanted to prove everyone wrong,\u201d says a source. \u201cHe was obsessively pursuing it and as a result his world on Yellowstone starts unravelling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2198296869-EMBED-2025.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"435\" width=\"290\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tKevin Costner at the February 2025 premiere of Horizon: An American Saga \u2014 Chapter 2 at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRebecca Sapp\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tDueling allegations started making their way into the press.\u00a0It was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/puck.news\/casualties-of-the-costner-yellowstone-crossfire\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a>\u00a0that Costner, who had scrounged up some seed financing to start making his Horizon films, wanted to spend no more than a week on the Yellowstone set for the final episodes. Costner\u2019s camp disputes that claim,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/tv\/tv-news\/kevin-costner-tells-his-side-yellowstone-dispute-1235897986\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">alleging<\/a>\u00a0instead that Sheridan was the problem because he was late delivering scripts. Regardless, it would all soon come to an end. According to a source, Costner presented Paramount and the show\u2019s producers with a list of demands required for his return to season five, including a $10 million upfront payment and script approval. Those conditions were rejected, and it was agreed that John Dutton\u2019s character would be killed off in the first episode of the second half of season five.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAt his peak, Costner was being paid around $1.5 million an episode, with a potential seasonal payday of over $10 million. Yellowstone was originally envisioned to run for six seasons, but a source on the show says, based on its success, it could have potentially stretched to eight seasons, meaning Costner might have pocketed something like $45 million if he\u2019d continued playing John Dutton III.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tSeveral sources believe that Kaplan, the former Price Waterhouse accountant, who by now had become Costner\u2019s business partner and at times, his attorney (he represented Costner in that lawsuit against his former business partner Jim Wilson) played a part in Costner\u2019s decision to leave Yellowstone and pursue Horizon instead. Kaplan flatly denies that assertion: \u201cWhoever said that is either not in a position to know or is misrepresenting the facts,\u201d he tells THR in an email, denying he has any undue influence over Costner. \u201cAnyone who knows Kevin at all knows that he is his own man who makes his own decisions.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIn any case, Kaplan acknowledges that he was the one in Costner\u2019s orbit most responsible for overseeing Horizon\u2019s finances \u2014 and, sources say, he was the one Costner trusted the most.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cHoward made enemies out of everyone,\u201d says Marc Weinstein, who was hired as the unit production manager for Horizon: An American Saga in February of 2022. Weinstein spent weeks scouting locations with Costner and was tasked with reviewing the budget for the first installment. After reading the script, he was floored when he learned that Kaplan and Costner thought they could make the film for $70 million. Weinstein thought it would cost closer to $130 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cI love Kevin Costner,\u201d he tells THR. \u201cBut it got to a point where Howard alienated anyone who tried to get close to Kevin for the good of the project, including myself.\u201d Kaplan fired Weinstein on Father\u2019s Day in 2022. \u201cThe problem is no one knew what was going on with the money, not even Kevin. Kevin let Howard do anything. He let him make decisions, but he wasn\u2019t informed. [Costner] never realized what all of this was going to cost him. It breaks my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tKaplan shoots back: \u201cMarc Weinstein was terminated based on his performance more than eight weeks before the start of photography on Horizon,\u201d he says. \u201cMr. Weinstein was not one of Kevin\u2019s representatives and he would have absolutely no knowledge of what Kevin was or wasn\u2019t aware of.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tOf course, even without Costner, Yellowstone would ultimately\u00a0become a billion-dollar asset for Paramount, spawning seven different spinoffs. Sheridan,\u00a0who declined to comment for this story, is now one of the most bankable names in town, with Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison recently calling him a\u00a0\u201csingular genius with a perfect track record.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tStill, there\u2019s clearly some lingering bad blood between the two old cowboys. According to one well-placed source, Costner had a hard time finding horses and cows to rent during his Horizon shoot in Utah. The rumor on the set was that most of the livestock had already been rented \u2026 by Taylor Sheridan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t***<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWhen people close to Costner read the original script for\u00a0Horizon,\u00a0which clocked in at well over 180 pages, many urged him to drastically cut it and revise it.\u00a0The script includes a sprawling cast of characters with disparate story lines that all converge on a fictional Western settlement.\u00a0\u201cI couldn\u2019t get through it. It was bananas-ville,\u201d says a source who read an early draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MCDHOAN_WB050.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"533\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tCostner in Horizon. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWarner Bros.\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tCostner, who declined to comment for this story, admitted as much in a 2024 GQ magazine\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gq.com\/story\/kevin-costner-gq-cover-story\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">profile<\/a>: \u201cIf my psychiatrist looked at me and they said, \u2018Kevin, let me get this straight. Nobody wanted to make one, right? At least at that point when you stopped, they didn\u2019t want to make it?\u2019 I said, \u2018Yeah.\u2019 And she goes, \u2018Why do you then go out and write four more? Why do you go and do that?\u2019 And I guess the answer is: Because I believe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tSecuring the necessary financing was an uphill battle, but Costner had done this before on Dances With Wolves, and that is what he repeatedly brought up in pitch meetings with investors. He was able to secure an early key ally, Danny Peykoff, heir to a bottled water fortune, who put in a low-eight-figure investment and use of his private jet. He found other investors: Tanner Beard of\u00a0Silver Sail Entertainment,\u00a0and even a few million in grant money from the state of Utah, where he promised to shoot the four films. Foreign presales, which he secured at Cannes in 2023, would provide a financial backstop, and as he did with Wolves, Costner put some of his own skin into the game, this time a whopping\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gq.com\/story\/kevin-costner-gq-cover-story\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$38 million<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAt the time, he had the money \u2014 or at least the collateral. Costner owns several trophy properties, including a 10-acre empty oceanfront parcel in Carpinteria, which was once listed for $60 million. Like a gambler in an old timey saloon, Costner dropped keys to that estate into the poker pot that was becoming Horizon\u2019s financing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBy spring of 2022, he had pulled together enough money \u2014 and assembled a cast including Luke Wilson and Sienna Miller \u2014 to start shooting the first and second of the four films. That\u2019s around when\u00a0Warner Bros. signed on as the film\u2019s domestic distributor.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIn the spring of 2024, shortly after production wrapped, Costner took the first Horizon movie to the Cannes Film Festival. There were, sources say, concerns the movie wasn\u2019t ready for exhibition and needed more time for testing. But Costner, true to form, took the film \u2014 and some of its cast \u2014 to France anyway, screening it out of competition, where it failed to wow many critics (at the time, Rotten Tomatoes gave it only a 27 percent rating based on the early reviews). It did, however, receive a 10-minute standing ovation, which reportedly brought Costner to tears.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tA month later, on June 28, 2024,\u00a0Horizon: An American Saga \u2014 Chapter 1\u00a0was released in theaters and pulled in just $11 million during its opening domestic weekend, a box office disaster nearly as horrific as Waterworld and Heaven\u2019s Gate.\u00a0It ultimately\u00a0grossed just\u00a0$38.7 million on a\u00a0$100 million budget \u2014 although, as Costner\u2019s spokesperson points out, it was HBO\u2019s top film on the platform when it streamed in August 2024.\u00a0The second installment,\u00a0Horizon 2,\u00a0was supposed to be released just a few months after the first, but WB pulled it after the first film\u2019s disappointing results. There\u2019s currently no release date.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t***\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cI need some more money \u2014 I do. I need some of these big billionaires, with fucking boats \u2018from here to here\u2019 who are fond of telling people they\u2019re billionaires, to come with me and make a movie,\u201d Costner told THR one year ago in Cannes. \u201cI don\u2019t have the money they have, and I\u2019ve already made two of \u2019em. Where are you rich guys?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tLast year, Costner made a trek to Riyadh looking for those rich guys \u2014 and to\u00a0accept a lifetime achievement award at Saudi Arabia\u2019s Joy Awards. \u201cSaudi Arabia deserves its place on the world stage, and I urge you to tell your own stories,\u201d he said during his acceptance speech. \u201cInvest in the emotional, and the universal and the historical that you know them to be \u2014 you will never regret it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWhile in Riyadh Costner met with top Saudi officials and pitched them to help finance the third and fourth installments of\u00a0Horizon. According to two sources, the Saudis were open to investing a certain amount in the franchise, but not the sum that Costner was seeking. He ultimately walked away with nothing. Costner\u2019s spokesman confirmed but downplayed those talks saying that he had \u201ccursory\u201d discussions with Saudi officials about financing Horizon.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-607408550.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"2021\" width=\"3000\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tCostner in 1990, on the set of Tony Scott\u2019s Revenge. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tSince then, he\u2019s been dealing with the fallout from the Horizon disaster, like a lien on that vacant $60 million\u00a0Carpinteria\u00a0property he leveraged for financing. In March,\u00a0a discovery hearing is scheduled\u00a0for arbitration pitting Costner\u2019s company against Horizon\u2019s bondholder,\u00a0City National Bank, and its distributor, New Line Cinema, both of which have financial disputes over the film (as COO of Costner\u2019s production company, Kaplan will almost certainly play a central role in that hearing).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIn just a few weeks,\u00a0he\u2019ll be in L.A. Superior Court for a pretrial hearing regarding\u00a0a female stunt performer who in June filed a suit against Costner alleging that she was forced to perform an unscripted rape scene without proper safety protocols. (Costner has called the claim a \u201cbald-faced lie.\u201d) And there may be other conflicts looming \u2014 investor Tanner Beard, who put in $3 million in the form of a bridge loan, tells THR in a statement that his \u201cattorneys are reviewing what has transpired here in order to advise on the best course of action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tCostner has a few projects in the pipeline but hasn\u2019t acted onscreen since Horizon.\u00a0It was recently announced that he\u2019ll co-star in a dramedy with Jake\u00a0Gyllenhaal for Amazon MGM and\u00a0he\u2019s attached to a surf thriller called\u00a0Headhunters\u00a0(Disclosure: the writer of this story was once\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/tv\/tv-news\/los-angeles-magazine-psychedelic-cover-story-stonewall-television-series-1235051947\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">developing<\/a>\u00a0a television series with one of the\u00a0Headhunters\u2019\u00a0producers based on an article he wrote in 2021. That project is no longer active). Where he has been busy is on the celebrity speaker circuit. This year alone, he gave paid speeches at the\u00a0International Dairy Deli Bakery Association; Impact Bucharest, which is a conference for entrepreneurs; and a keynote address at VMX 2025, the world\u2019s largest veterinary conference. (\u201cKevin\u2019s always done speaking engagements,\u201d notes his spokesperson.) He\u2019s also\u00a0discussed starting his own rum brand, \u00e0 la George Clooney\u2019s Casamigos tequila.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tBut despite\u00a0the legal headaches, the continuing costs and the reputational harm the Horizon debacle has caused him, he has shown no indication that he plans to cut and run from his vision of producing four epic Western films. He\u00a0continues to pound the pavement looking for financing to finish the third and fourth installment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIndeed, there was a flurry of news stories earlier this year that construction was underway on a\u00a0$100 million film studio in\u00a0St. George, Utah,\u00a0that Costner and his\u00a0Territory Pictures\u00a0were spearheading with a local developer named Brett Burgess. The project includes a 39,000-square-foot multipurpose warehouse and a 20,000-square-foot soundstage with an additional 10,000 square feet of office space.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cHe sees a future here for filming,\u201d says Joyce Kelly, who heads up the film commission in Greater Zion, Utah. \u201cI\u2019m confident that they will release Horizon 2 and that three and four will get done. I saw Horizon 2 and I thought it was amazing. We\u2019ve invested in this and I\u2019m rooting for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tCostner\u2019s spokesperson insists the project is indeed moving forward and Burgess, the other developer building the studio, didn\u2019t respond to THR\u2019s inquiries. But another source who works closely with Burgess and who has recently driven by the site had a very different take. \u201cIt was guns a blazing,\u201d he says of the initial plan for the studio. \u201cThey built a first structure that\u2019s about 80 percent complete. But right now, there\u2019s really nothing happening. After Costner\u2019s movie didn\u2019t do so good, things changed, and Kevin\u2019s been unavailable ever since. Could it still happen?\u201d he ponders. \u201cPossibly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tPossibly, indeed. Like an old Western gunslinger, Costner has been counted out before \u2014 only to gallop back onto the screen, battered and bruised, riding toward the next horizon.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It began, as so many arguments do, at a kitchen table. They were filming on a soundstage in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,119815,12669,26320,10758],"class_list":{"0":"post-209193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-horizon","10":"tag-kevin-costner","11":"tag-thr-cover-story","12":"tag-yellowstone"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}