Kevin Costner saddles up for ambitious cinematic journey with 4-part western he calls 'Horizon'

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Kevin Costner is saddling up for his most ambitious cinematic journey yet. It's the four-part, big screen western, labor of love he calls "Horizon."

Costner is the director, co-writer, producer, and star of "Horizon: An American Saga, Chapter 1."

It marks his first directing project in more than 20 years. It's also been 34 years since he produced and directed his first film "Dances with Wolves," which won two Oscars along the way.

Add in "Wyatt Earp" and the hit TV show, "Yellowstone," and it's fair to say Costner knows his way around a western. He admits he's become a bit of a modern-day ambassador for the American western.

"Well, I'm not looking to reinvent it or to educate people, but I love it," he said. "I love the drama, and I love that if you can bring humanity to a western, if you can bring authenticity, they're hard to look away from if your story stands."

This emotional saga chronicles pre- and post-Civil War expansion and the difficulties that were a part of it. The settlement of the American west was a tough time in American history.

"It gets harder, the journey. That's the promise. What these people went through, it gets tougher, and you get to know them more and you have a level of empathy for them," he said. "You see the good and bad of what happens in a place where there's no law."

Costner said he's read western stories his entire life, and now he loves that he gets to tell his own.

"I think people go to the movies with an idea that they're going to be taken on a journey," he said. "That they are going to be inspired, that they are going to be reminded in the dark, again, why it is they love movies so much because they get to be transported. You can only do that if you're careful in your storytelling."

"Horizon: An American Saga, Chapter 1" is now in theaters. Chapter 2 arrives in mid-August.