Following the first chapter of Kevin Costner‘s Horizon: An American Saga fizzling at the box office in June, its sequel will debut at the upcoming Venice Film Festival.
The organizers of the event will in fact screen both the first and second chapters on the final day of the fest, Sept. 7. The 81st annual event kicks off Aug. 28.
The second installment was originally envisioned as a four-film Western epic was initially supposed to hit theaters on Aug. 16, but the poor box office reception of the first, which debuted to just $11 million on June 28, caused Warner Bros. Discovery-owned New Line and Costner’s own Territory Pictures to pull the sequel from its release date.
The strategy was coupled with releasing the original film to video on demand and Max to give audiences a chance to see it and build potential interest in the second.
Costner gambled tens of millions of dollars of his own money to get the Horizon franchise started, but despite a high-profile premiere at Cannes in June, the first film earned mixed reviews.
Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone and Costner’s former Yellowstone co-star Danny Huston appear with the director and producer in the Horizon sequel, which has yet to secure a new release date.
Costner commented on the announcement, “My dream was always to show Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter Two at the Venice Film Festival. The fact that now they have decided to show Chapter One earlier in the day and then the World Premiere of Chapter Two that evening shows not only their belief in how the two films work together but their support of a director’s vision.”
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.