We have to discuss Kevin.
When seen earlier this month within the return of Paramount’s megahit, “Yellowstone,” Kevin Costner’s character was slumped on the ground useless, allegedly from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Followers of the present, indignant that Costner bailed on the second half of the ultimate season, felt its creator and govt producer, Taylor Sheridan, was trolling his former pal by portraying Costner’s character, the ruggedly good-looking and stoic Montana patriarch John Dutton, as suicidal.
It was the most recent kick within the tooth to Costner, 69, who has suffered a brutal 2024 which noticed him finalize a divorce from second spouse Christine Baumgartner, depart the TV hit he helped create and see his self-financed, four-part $100m ardour challenge, “Horizon” flop each critically and on the field workplace.
Many would view him as being on the ropes. However these near Costner know he’s been in related conditions earlier than and isn’t fazed by the obvious downturn in his fortunes, which stay important — in response to Baumgartner’s divorce submitting, he’s value some $400m.
“Kevin’s awesome,” a longtime pal of Costner who was out to dinner with him final week, advised The Submit.
“I’ve recognized him for years. I simply noticed him and he was in nice spirits. He didn’t speak in any respect about how his initiatives are doing. He makes a lot cash by means of his funding selections.
“He’s not sitting around and worrying about how his shows or movies are performing at the box office. He just cares that their quality is good.”
Costner’s additionally been again within the gossip pages since his 2023 cut up, first being linked to the nation singer Jewel, 50 – whom he insists is only a pal – this summer season after which for getting “flirty” with Sharon Stone on the Governors Awards ceremony in Los Angeles final week.
He’s actually doing nicely for the son of a ditch digger turned electrical line serviceman for Southern California Edison.
Costner’s massive break within the film business was thwarted when his scenes had been famously lower from 1983’s “The Big Chill,” which may have made him a star. He lastly broke by means of in 1988 with “Bull Durham,” the story of a minor league baseball participant who tells co-star and love curiosity Susan Sarandon he believes in “long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days.”
These with lengthy Hollywood reminiscences evaluate Costner’s present state of affairs with the mid 90s.
His triumph-against-long-odds western, “Dances with Wolves” in 1990 put him on the map, profitable seven Oscars complete and revitalizing the near-dormant Western style.
The movie advised the story of Union Military Lt. John J. Dunbar, performed by Costner, who travels to the frontier in search of a army publish and finds a gaggle of Lakota. A lot of the dialogue is spoken in Lakota with English subtitles.
He continued to win over audiences in “The Bodyguard” and “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” however then got here a bomb of epic proportions, “Waterworld,” in 1995. It was the then-most costly film ever made, costing $175m and changing into a Hollywood punch line for the remainder of the last decade.
That additionally coincided with a troublesome time personally, as Costner cut up from his spouse and mom of his first three kids, Cindy Silva, in 1994.
He spent the following ten years making a sequence of largely forgettable motion pictures and had one other son by means of a short relationship with Bridget Rooney in 1996. Costner met Baumgartner in 2004 and went on to have one other three kids, who’re all now teenagers.
Though Costner had memorable main man roles in “JFK,” “Field of Dreams” and “The Untouchables,” he’s at all times come again to the western – starring in movies like “Silverado,” “Wyatt Earp,” “Open Range” and “Let Him Go” in addition to TV fare like “The Hatfields and McCoys” and “Yellowstone.”
“I’m haunted by the interactions of people when there’s no law; when something’s wide open, how do you behave?” Costner advised GQ this yr. “And it’s a really interesting way to measure yourself in the dark. Who do I think I am in this? Now, a lot of people go, ‘Well, of course I’m the f—ing hero.’ And you want to say, ‘Really? You sure about that?”
Not like most Hollywood stars, Costner additionally has actual cowboy credentials, having purchased a160-acre Aspen property in 2000, which is now value some $80m. Earlier this yr he even put the property – which options its personal baseball discipline and room for 27 individuals – available on the market to hire, at $36,000 per night time.
The property, named Dunbar Ranch after his “Dances with Wolves” character, seems to be distinctly much like the one inhabited by John Dutton, Costner’s beloved “Yellowstone” character, who first debuted in 2018 and launched him to a complete new technology of followers.
His fallout with Sheridan and refusal to seem within the remaining episodes of “Yellowstone” had been a shock. And by some means, regardless of audiences loving John Dutton, they haven’t adopted him over to the large display because the response to “Horizon” has been lukewarm at greatest.
“With the fading of Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner is the last Western man standing — the last major movie star-filmmaker who’s still interested in making traditional Westerns on a big scale,” Ken Tucker, a longtime NPR pop music critic and former movie critic for New York Journal advised The Submit.
“His downside is the viewers for Westerns is getting as previous as he’s, and ageing child boomers can’t give him the field workplace outcomes he wants.
“He fit right into the Yellowstone universe because Taylor Sheridan is totally in love with the kind of stoic tough-guy-with-mature-emotions that Costner conveys so well.”
The “Horizon” saga, which he first started creating in 1988, is a sweeping saga damaged into 4 separate motion pictures involving a 15-year span, earlier than and after the Civil Battle, in regards to the settlement of the American west. Sienna Miller, Abbey Lee, Sam Worthington and Jena Malone spherical out a star-studded solid. Costner is the star of the challenge, and in addition directed, produced and co-wrote it.
Costner advised GQ that he sank $38 million of his personal cash into “Horizon”– mortgaging his lush $60m Santa Barbara house to fund the movie. (Fortunately that’s the lesser of Costner’s two estates within the space, behind his $145m compound which has been his foremost house for the reason that 80s).
Costner admitted he had an obsession with “Horizon,” at one level evaluating his insistence at taking over the massive challenge to literary character Captain Ahab self-destructively pursuing the good white whale in “Moby Dick”.
“The white whale obsessed him so much that he would take everybody down with them,” he advised GQ, however including, nonetheless, “I take nobody down with me. I take the risk myself.”
Having suffered failure earlier than Costner is reflective however unafraid, including: “I’ve taken big bites out of life, life’s taken big ones out of me, right?”
The primary two “Horizon” motion pictures, known as “chapters” had been launched in June and August, respectively, however after a weak field workplace efficiency it’s unclear when, if ever, the ultimate two will seem.
Costner advised The Hollywood Reporter in Might he’d shot a number of days of “Chapter 3” and had sufficient cash to shoot possibly every week extra.
“They’re going to happen regardless, but they’re not already funded,” Costner admitted to GQ.
Costner’s rep, Arnold Robinson, didn’t reply to detailed questions from The Submit about Costner’s profession and the destiny of the final two chapters of “Horizon.”
Veteran leisure journalist and TV producer Brian Balthazar stated Costner is way savvier than individuals might give him credit score for, given his years of expertise in Hollywood.
“Costner has seen quite a few commercial successes in his long term career, and it’s afforded him the chance, now more than ever, to think of his professional decisions as artistic endeavors without as much concern about the net financial gain,” Balthazar advised The Submit.
“Whether his fans like it or not, he has demonstrated a commitment to creating art that resonates on a deeper level, often prioritizing storytelling and authenticity over commercial considerations.”
At occasions it appears betting on himself – as he’s doing once more in “Horizon,” – exhilarates him as a lot as scares him.
“It doesn’t matter how much water’s hitting me in the face, I can’t let go of the rope,” he advised GQ.
However, he conceded, “I’m as far out on a limb right now as I’ve ever been.”
