I forgot this one was screening at Venice.
Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2” has screened on the Lido, and I see six reviews published, so far, and they’re all negative. Variety, Screen Rant, Screen, THR, The Wrap, Awards Watch are panning the film.
Reading through these writeups, they all look eerily similar to the ones the first film received at Cannes. There are many who believe this should have been a TV series instead of a film, and maybe they have a point.
After suddenly being pulled from the U.S. release calendar, ‘Chapter 2’ now has a steep hill to climb to build up any kind of excitement to justify a theatrical release. Screening this one at Venice was another risky move on the part of Costner. If you remember, the first ‘Horizon’ premiered at Cannes to very mixed reviews and that set the tone for the film’s doomed fate at the box-office. Doing it all over again, but this time at Venice, and it’s deja vu all over again.
There is currently no release date for ‘Chapter 2,’ which was originally supposed to be released in August but was pulled from the schedule by Warner Bros after the first instalment, which cost $110M, failed to lure an audience into buying a movie ticket — earning just $29M domestically.
Streamers like Netflix and Amazon made offers to acquire the ‘Horizon’ series, but it doesn’t sound like Costner accepted their offer. He wants theatrical rollouts.
In the meantime, Costner has repeatedly stated that he will be shooting ‘Chapter 3’ in August/September. He already shot nine days’ worth of footage in April before production had to temporarily shut down due to lack of funds. If Costner has indeed found the money to continue filming the third instalment, there is no guarantee that it will even find distribution.
Netflix and Skydance Animation have also called it quits. The two sides announced Monday that they're ending the animated film deal struck back in 2023, framing it as a mutual decision.