“Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” did not perform well at the box office, and ‘Chapter 2’ is receiving weak reviews out of Venice, but writer, director, and star Kevin Costner says he’s determined to finish his multipart Western epic.
“I have to hurry and not let the rock fall back downhill. I've gotta go put my hands on it again and start to push it up," Costner said in Venice, becoming visibly emotional as he spoke. "It's a rope that I cannot let go of. I don't know how I'm gonna make ‘Chapter 3’ right now, but I'm gonna make it."
Costner had repeatedly stated that he would be shooting ‘Chapter 3’ in the fall, but now he’s not quite sure that’ll happen. He shot nine days’ worth of footage in April, but production had to temporarily shut down due to lack of funds.
There is currently no release date for ‘Chapter 2,’ which was pulled from Warner Bros’ summer schedule after the first instalment, which cost $110M, failed to lure an audience into theaters, earning just $29M domestically.
Costner explained that the decision to delay the second film's release was indeed affected by the first film’s box office performance. “It didn’t have overwhelming success," he said, per Variety, before noting, “I’ve had a lot of movies that way, that have stood the test of time."
Costner went on to explain that it was Warner Bros’ “decision” to release ‘Chapter 2’ six weeks after the first film's release, before they backtracked and decided “not” to release it. Still, Costner claims that he’s happy things turned out the way they did.
“For me, it fell back into my plan, which was I always wanted to come out with movies about five-six months apart. And that was going to allow me to come to Venice,” the actor said. “I would have never come to Venice, because they won’t show the film here if it was already out.”