The modern Western melodrama Yellowstone on the Paramount Network stars Kevin Costner as John Dutton, the patriarch of a Montana ranching dynasty whose coveted land borders the titular national park and a reservation home to indigenous peoples. In the last few years, Costner has transitioned from a big-screen legend to the small-screen star of one of the most popular shows on television.
While Costner has always brought a certain movie-star swagger to Yellowstone (despite the fact that he is clearly not a great admirer of how television series function), the show has distinguished itself from its rivals by making the most of its surroundings to give its story a big-screen flair. In actuality, Costner’s decision to make his debut on a serialized TV series was heavily influenced by the show’s Montana setting.
Speaking at Deadline’s The Contenders Emmys presentation in April 2019, Costner revealed that the reason he agreed to star on Yellow was the intrigue of “seeing wide open spaces, when the land was almost like the Garden of Eden” on television, which he felt would remind audiences of the beauty of the real world.
He explained, “To know that places like this still exist in our country, adding drama against its backdrop, and actually understand in the realest terms that the meat that arrives on our table is still coming from somewhere. It’s coming from people that are getting up early in the morning and work really late. There’s a lot of America that seems like it’s behind a curtain, that way of life still exists. I am drawn to that and I don’t know many people that aren’t. That when we go out into it, that we see it. And when you put a drama against that background, I just think it’s very compelling. We don’t see that enough. I don’t think that we get outside enough, if you will.”
Kevin Costner is no stranger to the lush landscapes of Westerns
Yellowstone is hardly Costner’s first brush with the wide open spaces of the American West, or even the Western genre for that matter. The actor has frequently saddled up and hit the dusty trails over the course of his career, breaking through in the 1985 actioner Silverado before appearing in 1994’s Wyatt Earp and later producing, directing, and starring in 2003’s Open Range — a cinematic trifecta that Costner had previously tackled to the tune of two Academy Awards (Best Picture and Best Director) when his wispy, anti-Western drama Dances With Wolves graced screens back in 1990.
In 2017, Costner revealed that he had co-written a 10-hour-long Western project that he’d love to direct for the big or small screen. Speaking with Vulture and Variety in two separate interviews (via Collider), he shared, “I have another Western I’ve co-written with some people, and I would like to play out the second half of my career directing more. I’ve constantly given the movies I’ve found to directors who I thought could do it better, but there are a lot of voices in my ear from my family saying, ‘You need to direct the movies you fall in love with.’ So I think I will […] It’s about 10 hours long, how about that?
Maybe I’ll make three features out of it. There’s a fourth one, too, so it’s truly a saga. I could do TV, or I could also make it like every six months, have a big Western that’s tied together like Jean De Florette and Manon of the Spring. I think those are fun to watch.”As for Yellowstone, the show continues to make stark use of its stunning vistas, which serve as a fascinating backdrop and counterpoint to its modern-day setting. Though Costner hasn’t yet helmed an episode of the series, you can go ahead and add it to the list of Costner’s memorable Western ventures — with the actor bringing as much drama, presence, and majesty to the show as the Montana sky itself.