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THR: Kevin Costner explains why he spent 9 mill of his own money to make 'Black Or White'
You’ve invested a lot of your own money in everything from a machine to clean up oil spills to an upcoming series of books to some of your movies — $3 million of the $16 million budget of Dances with Wolves, and now $9 million for Black or White when other financing didn’t avail itself. Spending your own money on movies is something people generally advise against…
I do so many things entrepreneurially in my life, and I stare up at the ceiling sometimes wondering how far out on a limb I’ve put my family and myself. But I am really in love with the “What if?” I put over $20 million into an oil-water separator business, another $15 in another one. It doesn’t mean anybody around the world is buying it, but I know for a fact that it works. I’m easy to dismiss because I’m a Hollywood personality, but I stay the course and I have the science and the engineering to back it up.
What does it say about Hollywood today that a movie like Black or White, which film festival audiences and critics have so embraced, couldn’t find any major studio to finance or distribute it? I can’t imagine that one would make Dances with Wolves today either…
No. And Bull Durham had a terrible time getting made — it was just not going to get made, and it was only made for about $6 million. It’s not new to me. The studios are making the kinds of movies they want to make. They understand their business, but I have to equally understand my business of what I choose to do, and this has as much value as anything that I could imagine doing. I couldn’t minimize it, and I wouldn’t allow it to be minimized. The studios didn’t fail; I would have failed if I didn’t toughen up and just figure out how to do it. I think it would've been a sad thing if people didn’t get to see this movie. That’s how much I actually believed in it. It helped inform me a little bit about how to conduct myself in the current state of affairs where race is concerned in this country.
What's next for you?
I play music all over the world. I have a band, and I had no idea where this band was going to take me; I just wanted to play music wherever I was making a movie for two or three months, and it just developed into something else, you know, and look, I’ve played the Kremlin! I have another Western that’s about 10 hours long. What am I supposed to f—ing do with that? You know, but I have an idea about what to do with it. You know, if I had my druthers, it would be a true serial thing. It would be like come out on Memorial Day, come out on Thanksgiving, come out on Fourth of July, and then come out on Christmas, four, within an 18-month period. And I think that would be a very interesting way. And if I was really doing it right, after each one, I’d play the first two right in front of it, you know, like on a Wednesday, a Thursday, and then [have] it come out on Friday. [Also] I’m involved with making maybe one of the great novels of this century. That’s what I’d like it to be. Will it be? I don’t know, but that’s what I want it to be. Two guys and I have a novel coming out in 2015, The Explorer's Guild, Volume One, about mercenaries who go around the world — it's set in 1915 and, in this volume, they're chasing this mythical Shambhala. I’m not the main writer — I'm one of the minor writers, and I financed the whole thing, put about a million dollars into that — but we’ve worked on it for four and a half years. I just stick with ****. Story is a thing that excites me.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/kevin-costner-explains-why-he-760898
Costner is cool. His movies continue to bomb, but he keeps getting starring roles. McFarland up next... {nm} Jan 30, 16:33
At this rate, I wonder if he'll keep getting starring roles. {nm} Jan 30, 16:44
i don't think McFarland will bomb {nm} Jan 30, 17:18
Well I tend to think the opposite. I know the pundits are high on this next one, but i'm thinking he goes sub 10 again. {nm} Jan 30, 17:50
even Million Dollar Arm made $10 million o.w. Jan 30, 17:54
i dunno... that's the thought process i guess. running is not a popular sport. {nm} Jan 30, 18:32
didn't hurt Chariots of Fire any Jan 30, 18:35
#withoutlimits #prefontaine {nm} Jan 30, 19:21
In fairness, both were extremely limited releases (110 and 201 respectively). Jan 30, 19:32
THR: Kevin Costner explains why he spent 9 mill of his own money to make 'Black Or White' Jan 30, 17:24
Cuz the Man wouldn't give him $10! {nm} Jan 30, 17:28
Class Act {nm} Jan 30, 18:04
Maybe a remake of The BodyGuard {nm} Jan 30, 19:24
With Henry Cavill as the young, new bodyguard and Costner relaying wisdom before stupidly perishing in a tornado. {nm} Jan 30, 19:34
It pretty interesting to see how many of Costner's movies were made or partially made on his dime. {nm} Jan 30, 19:40