'Yellowstone' Star Kevin Costner Has Another Western Project Lined Up

By Alyssa Fikse

Yellowstone star Kevin Costner has lined up his next project. The Oscar-winner will be getting back in the director's chair for the first time since 2003's Open Range to make his latest passion project, Horizon. Deadline reports that casting will begin next month, with the aim to start shooting in Utah in August. On top of directing, Costner will star in, produce, and finance the movie through his production company, Territory Pictures.

Costner has built much of his career on westerns, and Horizon will continue with that tradition, covering a "15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West." After making a name for himself directing the awards sweeping Dances with Wolves, Costner hopes to carry on in that storytelling tradition. 

"America's expansion into the west was one that was fraught with peril and intrigue from the natural elements, to the interactions with the indigenous peoples who lived on the land, and the determination and at many times ruthlessness of those who sought to settle it," Costner told Deadline. "Horizon tells the story of that journey in an honest and forthcoming way, highlighting the points of view and consequences of the characters' life and death decisions."

The actor has most recently been in the fourth season of Yellowstone, and he made bank doing it. When Costner initially signed on to Yellowstone, he was reportedly earning $500,000 per episode for Season 1. Along the way, and amid the show's rising popularity, that figure has grown exponentially. He reportedly re-negotiated and earned $1.2 million per episode for Season 4. That figure is set to grow for Season 5 and beyond. Additionally, Costner will also get an overhead deal in exchange for negotiating his future seasons on the series. 

Following Yellowstone's 2018 premiere, Costner spoke with Deadline about what drew him to the series. He explained that when he first read the script, he saw that it would be shot on the Bitterroot Valley and that was "enough to catch my interest." The actor added that he knows what he's looking for when it comes to choosing a project to join, and Yellowstone had everything that he needed. Costner said that "it has to entertain, you have to be able to see yourself in it. Can people gather around this idea, then can your idea pivot off that? Yellowstone was a perfect marriage." He went on to tease the show that fans know and love today by saying that it "is not some kind of fiction... While the American west is disappearing, the DNA of the characters has a level of unpredictablilty, of danger."

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