LOS ANGELES (AP) — While a healthy slice of America awaited Sunday’s return of the hit series “Yellowstone,” star Kevin Costner was in Moab, Utah, scouting locations for yet another Western epic, “Horizon.”
Costner’s 60-some film credits, among them “Field of Dreams,” “The Bodyguard,” “JFK” and “Bull Durham,” are an eclectic mix of dramas, baseball-centric tales and the occasional comedy. But the West’s history and land have proven his creative bedrock.
His breakout role came in 1985’s “Silverado,” followed by starring roles in “Dances with Wolves,” his Oscar-winning directorial debut; “Wyatt Earp,” and “Open Range,” which he also directed. He’s donning the actor-director Stetson again for “Horizon,” planned as a four-film saga about pre- and post-Civil War western migration.
The Paramount Network’s contemporary “Yellowstone,” created by Taylor Sheridan (“Hell or High Water”), already has generated a successful prequel, “1883.” A second, “1923” (formerly titled “1932”), with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren as its headliners, is set for a Dec. 18 release.
In its fifth season, “Yellowstone” opens with Costner’s Montana rancher John Dutton awaiting the outcome of his reluctant run for governor — a big-swing effort to shield his family’s vast land and business against challenges from developers and empowered Native Americans.