If there’s one thing Kevin Costner hasn’t lacked in his career, it’s ambition. Hitting his stride in the director’s chair the first time out with “Dances With Wolves” (which won 7 Oscars), his next two efforts were high concept failures: “Waterworld” (where his work was uncredited on the troubled production) and “The Postman” (which is all his). The failure of the latter meant a six year-wait until his next, the much more modest western “Open Range.” And the genre is a favorite of Costner’s either as an actor and director and it looks like he wants to get back in the saddle, with a rather huge plan.
Chatting with Collider, Costner revealed he’s kicking around an idea for Western quadrilogy, with three of the movies coming out in the same year on major holidays, with a fourth to follow afterward. Take that Marvel! Here’s what Costner had to say:
“I’ve got this Western that I think I could make. I actually have this idea to make them all at once and release one on Memorial Day, one on Thanksgiving, and then one on the Fourth of July, all within a 12 month span, because it’s all the same story but it truly is a journey, with a fourth movie coming right after. Will I be able to do that? I don’t know. But that’s what I think about, that’s what I try to do. And people go, ‘Oh that’s really interesting, Kevin. We don’t think we can do that.’ And I’m thinking ‘Man, that’s a really good idea.’ I thought that was a true ongoing series, or sequel if you will, that actually was an honest one. A second one wasn’t invented because the first one made a little money.”
In today’s studio environment, we can certainly see how this would be a hard sell, but here’s an idea for Costner: tweak the concept and go to the cable networks and turn this into a TV series. Clearly with a four movie arc, there’s a lot of story here that could be parcelled out in a weekly format. But hey, it’s nice to see someone in Hollywood dreaming big about something that isn’t a branded property. But the chances of this really happening seems slim at best.
