Kevin Costner sticks to subject as Gayle King questions 'Yellowstone' exit: 'This isn't therapy'

"'Horizon' didn't cause problems for me," Costner told King. "I wanted to work more than once a year, and it was important that I made room for 'Yellowstone' and made room for 'Horizon,' but we just — people ran through deadlines, they were busy, they had a lot to do. But 'Horizon' was secondary to 'Yellowstone.'

"But it still had to line up," he continued. "I had 400 people waiting for me, so I did things in a very limited amount of time."

Costner added that whereas his Academy Award-winning directorial debut, "Dances With Wolves," took 106 days, "Horizon" was shot in just 52.

"Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1," the first installment in a proposed four-part film series, was released in theaters Friday. Costner has been pushing the project since 1988.

"I thought it was good, but no one would make it," he said on "CBS Mornings." "I thought, well then, I'll write four more, see how they like those."

Costner said no one liked those either, "but I did, and I couldn't forget ['Horizon']. I fell in love with it."

During a Thursday panel discussion for Josh Horowitz's "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, Costner said, "I felt like I had a secret for you in this movie," adding that his faith in the project has grown with the cast's. "I turned the script over to these actors, and one by one, as they read it, they said they wanted to be a part of it.

"I knew we had something," he said.

"Horizon" brought in just $800,000 from more than 3,000 locations Thursday, according to studio estimates — a soft start on its projected opening weekend box office take of $10 million to $12 million in the United States and Canada. Filmmakers and studios remain hopeful that Costner's fan base will deliver over the weekend.

"Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2" arrives in theaters Aug. 16.

Meanwhile, the final six episodes of "Yellowstone" are well into production and slated to air Nov. 10. The first half of "Yellowstone" Season 5 aired between November 2022 and January 2023.

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