Kevin Costner (“Dances With Wolves”) is making his directorial comeback with the two-part Western “Horizon: An American Saga” coming to theaters this summer. And another mystery Western project, which could be a smaller-scale romance, may be in the cards for Costner Australian actor Chris Hemsworth (“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”), best known for playing Marvel’s “Thor,” revealed to Entertainment Tonight during CinemaCon 2024 that he had hoped to work with Costner on an upcoming but unnamed film, and envisioned himself as the main lead. The only problem, Costner had already cast himself in that part.
“There was a movie, a script that I’d read and loved and was like, ‘I want to get that,’ and then someone said, ‘Kevin Costner has that [role],’” Hemsworth told ET over the weekend in Las Vegas. “I’d love [to have] him as a director. I was like, ‘Goddamnit!’ [I spent] an hour the other day trying to convince him, and he was like, ‘I’m doing it, kid.’ Didn’t work. I didn’t get the part.”
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“It’s better seen in his wheelhouse, for sure, as far as the kind of Western environment. There are horses involved; he’s a horse wrangler, and my wife [Elsa Pataky] read it and loves horses,” Hemsworth explained why he so desperately wanted the part. “We have 10 or 11 horses back home, and so she’s like, ‘You’ve got to do this.’”
Costner responded to Hemsworth’s comments when ET spoke with the actor/director at the Las Vegas exhibitor event, and the “Yellowstone” star explained why he turned him down.
“It’s a love story, but as long as I’m still young enough to play it, I’ll play it. Chris will have to wait his turn,” he said. “[Hemsworth] ’s so handsome, and he’s so good. He’s going to have to go find his [own] love story. [But] I’m glad he likes this one. If I reach a moment where I [don’t] think I could do that, I would [reach out]. He’s certainly one of our great leading men right now.”
What the project is is unclear. At first, one gets the feeling they’re actually talking about “Horizon: An American Saga,” which Costner is obviously directing and starring in. Still, Hemsworth described the film as an “abstract and interesting…a small story about a man and a woman,” which does not sound like Costner’s upcoming two-part epic set during the Civil War.
Hemsworth finally responded with, “Thanks, Kevin, as you say, it’s a nice way of saying ‘Bad luck, you’re not getting the part.’” While Hemsworth missed out, clearly, Costner seems like he could be on the precipice of a big comeback if “Horizon: An American Saga” is a hit, so maybe the younger actor needs to be patient, and perhaps another collaboration could be in the cards one day (no doubt, Costner has a drawer full of scripts from his fallow time in the aughts).
Hemsworth’s skills with horses have already been seen in some of the “Thor” movies, particularly in his military film “12 Strong” opposite Michael Shannon. So if a Kevin Costner film isn’t the opportunity he’d hope for, maybe it’s only a matter of time before the actor finds a Western he’s perfect for.