Kevin Costner Defends Using $38 Million of His Fortune on “Horizon” Films: 'I Do What I Believe In'

Kefvin Costner on May 19, 2024

The director-actor discusses taking a personal financial risk on his multi-part Western 'Horizon: An American Saga'

Kevin Costner is standing by his hefty personal investment in his passion project.

While speaking with GQ about his upcoming multi-part Western Horizon: An American Saga, the actor-director, 69, recalled his decades-long journey on the project. Costner revealed he has spent roughly $38 million of his own money making the series so far.

“That’s the message I want my kids to understand about who I am: that I do what I believe in,” he told the outlet of taking the financial risk. “I have fear like everybody else. I don’t want to be humiliated.”

Though the fact that Costner took out a mortgage on his family's home in Santa Barbara, Calif., to help fund the series' first two films has made headlines, the actor noted he has not risked his children's permanent living situation. “I mean, it’s okay, maybe I lose that. But it’s: Have I lost myself?”

Related: Kevin Costner's Next Movie: Everything to Know About Horizon: An American Saga

Costner wrote, directs and stars in Horizon, which made its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival on May 19. As GQ reported, Costner first wrote the initial story in 1988, passed on producing the film with Disney in 2003 over a budget dispute and later revamped the story into a four-part tale in 2012 with his co-writer Jon Baird.

While speaking with the outlet, Costner pictured a theoretical conversation with a psychiatrist who questions why he would expand a film he struggled to find financing for into four parts.

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"I guess the answer is because I believe. But I can also see that psychiatrist going, ‘Yeah, but no one wanted one, and you just did four.’ As if I didn’t hear her the first time," he said. "And I can’t defend that psyche. I can’t defend anything other than the story just kept getting better and better for me.”

Related: Kevin Costner Debuts Wild West-Approved Mustache at Cannes (John Dutton Is Shaking)

Horizon: An American Saga received a 10-minute standing ovation following its Cannes premiere. Costner said at a festival press conference that he began filming Chapter 3 before the festival and will resume filming when he gets back.

"I'm going to leave here and I'm going to go back and start directing again and go as far as my money takes me," said Costner, who added that he is still trying to secure additional funding for the film's third installment.

Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 is in theaters June 28, with Chapter 2 out Aug. 16.

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