Kevin Costner doesn’t care about box office numbers.
The actor, 69, was at Venice Film Festival over the weekend for the premiere of his sequel to “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter One,” which bombed at the box office when it came out in theaters in June.
Like its predecessor, “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter Two” got mostly negative reviews from critics upon its premiere at the festival on Saturday.
Still, Costner confirmed that he plans to direct and star in the third film of the planned four-part “Horizon” series.
“I have to hurry and not let the rock fall back downhill,” he said at the press conference for the second film, per Variety.
“I’ve gotta go put my hands on it again and start to push it up,” the Oscar winner continued. “It’s a rope that I cannot let go of. I don’t know how I’m gonna make 3 right now, but I’m gonna make it.”
According to Variety, principal photography on “”Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 3” began in May and is expected to finish next year.
The “Yellowstone” alum reportedly said at the press conference that all of the “Horizon” movies have been written. He also teased the third film as “devastating.”
The first movie, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May before hitting theaters on June 28, grossed $36 million on a $100 million budget. Costner reportedly spent $38 million of his own money on the film.
It also received scathing reviews from critics. It has a 49% critics approval score on Rotten Tomatoes.
After “Chapter One” tanked, its sequel was taken off the theatrical schedule and instead had its world premiere in Venice.
At the press conference, Costner spoke candidly about the first film’s poor box office performance and the decision to scrap the second film’s release date.
“I think it probably was a reaction to the release of 1 — it didn’t have overwhelming success,” Costner said. “That was a studio decision to release it six weeks later, and it became a studio situation to not [release it that quickly].”
“I’ve had a lot of movies that way that have stood the test of time,” the “Field of Dreams” star noted. “For me, it fell back into my plan, which was: I always wanted to come out with the movies about five, six months apart, and that was gonna allow me to come to Venice.
Costner previously defended his Western film franchise that also stars Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Luke Wilson and Giovanni Ribisi in an interview with E! News last month.
“I’ve faced life with people being dismissive of me, he said. “But they can’t be dismissive of ‘Horizon,’ because now it’s out of their hands.”
“And they might point to the finish line—well, this is what it did at the box office—but I know that this movie is going to play for the next 50 years,” Costner added.
