It’s a big week for Kevin Costner because he’s about to find out how audiences will respond to his labor of love, part one of Horizon: An American Saga, when it premieres in theaters on Friday, June 28. The 69-year-old actor is bound to be a bundle of nerves because he invested $38 million of his own fortune to make the franchise happen, and of course, there’s his Hollywood reputation at stake.
Costner’s press tour for Horizon was a rough go because everyone wanted to know his status for the final half of Yellowstone. Now that he’s revealed he’s out for good, he can focus on promoting his film, right? Well, it doesn’t seem like a very pleasant ride for him so far. “He’s putting on this bravado and coming up with all these excuses why Hollywood is not on his side but he’s becoming misery guts to everyone, and the pity party just never ends,” claimed a Life & Style source. It’s the movie reviews that have him concerned.
Despite an emotional seven-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the critics have not been so kind to his passion project. Currently, with 31 reviews, Costner’s movie is at a 48% green splat rate on Rotten Tomatoes, which is not a good sign for the expensive film. Time magazine critic Stephanie Zacharek shared, “The first part of a planned four-part epic saga strives for a lot, but serves more to remind us of the best of the genre without achieving it itself.” David Rooney from The Hollywood Reporter noted, “Any of these plotlines might have sustained an hour of compelling television but they don’t add up to much in this awkwardly stitched quilt, which rarely provides the space for anyone’s experiences to resonate.”
However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for Costner because Paste Magazine‘s Luke Hicks wrote, “Costner’s mammoth vision of frontier America can be breathtaking.” And Deadline‘s Pete Hammond seems enthusiastic about part two, which hits theaters in August. “For Costner, this is an impressive beginning, with the promise of more to come,” he wrote. The actor will also likely be appealing to his Yellowstone fans to buy tickets since the Western genre fits right into their wheelhouse.
“Kevin is still holding out hope that the final arbiter of HAASP1 will be the millions of fans who have fueled Yellowstone‘s success over the last five years and made that show, for a time, the biggest thing on television,” a second source told Life & Style. The first source isn’t painting a pretty picture, though, “He’s feeling sorry for himself and letting the world know and licking his wounds after the savage reviews to his movie Horizon’s opening.” A movie can easily outrun its negative reviews, but Costner’s going to have to find a way to get his loyal fans to the box office.
Before you go, click here to see all the nostalgic hits getting movie and TV reboots.
