Kevin Costner’s The Explorer’s Guild to become a book and film series

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Kevin Costner is not going to sit around and wait for a project to fall in his lap. Instead, he came up with his own idea for a series which has been purchased by Atria Books. Costner’s THE EXPLORER’S GUILD is a planned line of serial adventures (think INDIANA JONES or JONNY QUEST) that will be published in book form. But, Costner is also looking to star and produce a feature film series based on the novels.

According to Deadline, the series has a pretty epic plot: The Explorers Guild is a clandestine group of adventurers who seek out the places where light gives way to shadow, and reason is usurped by myth. The secrets of this unknown world are hidden in mountain ranges and lost in deserts, sunk to the ocean floor and lodged deep beneath polar ice. The aim of The Explorers Guild: to discover the mysteries that lie beyond the boundaries of the known world. The first adventure is set against the backdrop of World War I and revolves around the quest to find the mythic Buddhist city Shambhala. Guild members are looking for different things there: one hopes to save his brother’s life, another looks for spiritual enlightenment and peace; others fear it will bring mankind to the brink of apocalypse. The search includes treks to the Polar North, the Mongolian deserts and underground canals of Asia to the Himalayas.

Costner has been involved in epic projects before. Some good (DANCES WITH WOLVES) and some not so good (THE POSTMAN, WATERWORLD). With his recent success with the miniseries HATFIELDS & MCCOYS and an upcoming appearance in MAN OF STEEL and JACK RYAN, Costner seems to be breaking back into the spotlight.

Costner views the series as being a franchise like James Bond and, while he will not star, he will definitely play a role in all of the different formats the series may take.

I like Costner and look forward to this project. Hopefully it will be more like THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN rather than SAHARA. The first book in the series, THE EXPLORER’S GUILD, VOLUME ONE: A PASSAGE TO SHAMBHALA, will be published in 2014.