A few weeks ago, Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga: Chapter 1” was made available on Netflix. The film had been originally set up as a Max exclusive by Warner Bros.
Check out the latest Nielsen streaming movies chart (via Puck’s Matt Belloni). Costner’s summer flop is sitting at #1. Yes, ‘Horizon’ has become the most watched movie on all of streaming for January.
Costner can thank Warner Bros. for that as ‘Horizon’ was included in the studio’s latest money-grab licensing deal with Netflix. The deal ended up benefiting all parties involved, especially Costner who now sees that there might be an audience for his planned four-part western franchise.
With ‘Horizon—Chapter 2’ still unreleased and Costner looking for money to film the last two instalments, Belloni adds what I’ve been saying for months now; there’s only one solution here: Netflix should pick up the entire Horizon saga.
Back in July, I reported that Netflix had actually made an offer to Costner. The streamer was willing to get in the Yellowstone/Western game by partially helping to fund ‘Horizon’ chapters 3 and 4. Costner had originally declined the offer, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s now changed his mind.
At this point, the well has dried up, and Costner can’t seem to find the money, let alone a theatrical distributor, needed to shoot the next two films. Last summer, he had shot nine days’ worth of footage for ‘Chapter 3,’ but production had to be shut down due to lack of funds.
In a recent interview with Deadline, Costner admitted having had meetings with “all of the billionaires we hear about.”
I’m don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I’m going to make [Chapter 3] and then I’m going to make the fourth one. And if you want to say ’the end’ at that point, then that’s the end.
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. ‘Chapter 2’ did end up world premiering at the Venice Film Festival in September, albeit to weak reviews which further complicated matters for potential distribution. Netflix is now the only (and smartest) option for Costner.
