Kevin Costner to return to directing with “western saga”

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Deadline reports that DANCES WITH WOLVES filmmaker and star Kevin Costner is hopping back into the director's chair, this time for an upcoming western saga.

Costner had a few firsts this year, testing the streaming waters with his Netflix film THE HIGHWAYMEN, a story about a pair of Texas Rangers who come out of retirement to catch the notorious outlaws Bonnie and Clyde, as well as appearing in his very first television program to date, YELLOWSTONE. Penned by HELL OR HIGH WATER and SICARIO writer Taylor Sheridan, YELLOWSTONE follows a ranching family in Montana as they face off against others encroaching on their land.

As Cannes is currently in the midst of sidelining Netflix from their prestigious festival, the topic of whether or not the streaming service is to be considered a true production company is a debate that has been on the lips of every cinephile around. This is an especially hot topic when one takes into account the fact that Netlifx still refuses to show exactly how many people actually watch movies on their platform.

Costner claims he can relate to each side of the Netflix argument, preferring that moviegoers watch his films as they were meant to be seen — on the big screen — but also accepting the fact that his movies are simply going to reach more eyes when they're available for people to watch from the comfort of their living room. He's aware that most people aren't willing to sit through a period piece like THE HIGHWAYMEN if it means having to get up and go to the theater, especially in an era where superhero movies still very much reign supreme.

"I just know that people will find it now; far more people will see it than would have ever seen it in the theater" says Costner. "That’s sad to me because it looks great on the big screen. But seeing that story told, with a little bit of reverse engineering on who Frank Hamer actually was, was nice for the family whose reputation was murdered along with all the people."

Although he's mainly appeared in front of the camera as of late, Costner promises he is still very much a filmmaker, vowing to "direct much more going forward". 

When questioned about the highly anticipated Disney+ and the fact that filmmakers can really take their time with working within the constraints of a streaming service, Costner can't deny that the various platforms available today have their merits in the eye of the director. 

"I have a Western saga in mind where I’d like to shoot all three as features and have them come out every three months, because it’s a continuum" explains Costner. "It’s four [movies], and then let it go to TV, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t even be thought of as a premiere there because all the groups of people that don’t go to the theater can now sit home and go, 'I’m going to watch this all, in a pure way.'"

Of course, the FIELD OF DREAMS star feels that the West looks good on the big screen, and if possible, he'd like to have his western viewed the way it's truly meant to be seen. However, where Netflix comes in handy is when "no one’s going to interfere with the tone of it by trying to jam it into another rating system thing where we can get a bigger audience if we drop down to PG-13. And then you lose your core audience if you drop it to PG-13 because those things matter. You don’t have those discussions with Netflix. And that’s really encouraging to me, that the films can speak for themselves rather than have a committee speaking for them."