Legal Dispute Slows Progress on Kevin Costner’s Horizon
Kevin Costner’s passion project, Horizon: An American Saga, is an ambitious series of four western feature films. Last summer saw the release of Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, with Chapter 2 originally slated to hit cinemas just weeks later.
However, due to a muted box office response to the first film, the release of Chapter 2 was postponed. Nearly a year on, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 has made appearances at film festivals and enjoyed a US premiere, yet it remains absent from official release schedules, caught in a state of limbo.
As for Chapters 3 and 4, aside from nine minutes of footage, they remain unfilmed.
I’ve been seeking answers about the delayed release of Chapter 2, reaching out to writer, director, and star Kevin Costner, but with little success. To this day, the film isn’t listed for release in the US or UK—and a newly uncovered legal dispute isn’t likely to help matters.
New Line Cinema, part of the Warner Bros. Discovery empire, had a distribution deal for the first two films but has now filed for arbitration over alleged breaches of that agreement.
From what I’ve gathered, Horizon Series—the company Kevin Costner formed to handle his financing—is the focus of New Line’s claim. Before that, City National Bank initiated arbitration involving both New Line and Horizon Series concerning the co-financing arrangements.
None of the parties involved are publicly commenting on the dispute. However, City National Bank appears to be seeking repayment from the other two, while New Line insists it has fulfilled its financial obligations.
Amid these allegations and legal noise sits a completed but unreleased second film, stalled by the ongoing conflict, with two more chapters seemingly no closer to production.
It’s a frustrating situation, and it seems clear that this legal impasse must be resolved before Chapter 2 can reach audiences.
