Costner's new epic proves he is Hollywood's outlaw

The first part of a four-film saga by the 'Dances with Wolves' star isn't going down well at Cannes, but his recent TV series shows we can't underestimate his appeal, says Louis Chilton

- Louis Chilton

Whatever happened to Kevin Costner? It's a question you'd be forgiven for asking if you've been staking out your local cinema for the past half-decade. The 69-year-old actor and director, once an American movie star in the truest Jupiterian sense, has barely made a film in years. Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival last week, is Costner’s comeback of sorts: his first leading film role since 2020, and his first directorial effort since 2003’s Open Range.

It’s a western, the first of a proposed four-film franchise into which Costner has supposedly sunk nearly $100m of his own money. If there’s a romance to this premise, it seems critics didn’t get the briefing; early previews have seen Costner’s passion project branded “dull” and “incoherent”. Perhaps the most damning epithet to blight any labour of love, “vanity project” has been said of Horizon several times.

But here’s the thing: none of this is likely to matter to Costner one bit. Time was, Costner had the Hollywood critical establishment eating out of his sturdy, calloused hand. In 1991, he won two Oscars for his debut film Dances with Wolves – Best Picture and Best Director – amid a run of acclaimed leading roles in commercially successful movies (JFK; Robin Hood: