Most folks will level to Waterworld when requested to establish Kevin Costner‘s largest field workplace flop. Those individuals are not essentially mistaken, both. The 1995 waterlogged catastrophe price $175 million to make. That’s greater than the annual GDP for lots of nations. And although is did earn $264 million, it’s broadly thought-about a missed alternative on behalf of the Yellowstone actor. But there’s one other 90s movie that Costner made and really footed the invoice for simply two years later that’s by all accounts a good larger flop than Waterworld. We’re speaking in regards to the doomed The Postman returned solely $20 million on a funds of greater than $85 million, a great portion of which got here out of Costner’s personal pockets. So what within the “waterworld” occurred to this David Brin novel adaptation of a mailman on horseback who rides within the huge Northwestern portion of the United States in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic society? And why did the star resolve to make use of his personal cash to get the manufacturing to the end line?
Costner Has Always Invested in His Own Projects
Much is made out of Costner placing up his personal cash for The Postman as a result of the movie did so badly in theaters and was broadly panned by each critics and audiences alike. But Costner has additionally picked up the tab for a few of his extra profitable films as effectively. For his triumphant 1990 western epic Dances with Wolves, the star invested $3 million out of his personal pocket and was rewarded with an Academy Award for Best Picture. He additionally invested greater than $9 million in Black or White, a 2014 movie that starred Costner, Octavia Spencer, and Anthony Mackie. You will not hear a lot about that both because the movie greater than doubled its funding making over $21 million on the money that the actor put into the movie. The motive such a stink is raised about his monetary backing of The Postman is that it was an enormous challenge and was additionally approaching the heels of one other monumental bomb in Waterworld.
So What Went Wrong With ‘The Postman’?
There are loads of causes to pile on The Postman, from the extreme runtime of over three hours to the portentousness of its lead, director, and likewise producer, Costner. But apart from being a nasty funding, there’s something in regards to the movie that does not ring true. It is ready in 2013 and what’s left of society has been separated into small hamlets of survivors who combat one another for the scraps of a as soon as vibrant civilization. It was Kevin Costner in one other apocalyptic setting, solely this time he is not surrounded by water, however by miles and miles of landlocked, dusty flatlands. The star went from Waterworld on to “Dirtworld” with out passing “Go” and undoubtedly with out accumulating $200.
The greatest dialogue within the movie is within the opening scenes between Costner and his horse, “Bill.” That ought to let you know all it is advisable to know in regards to the screenplay. It seems as if Costner is attempting like hell to emulate Cervantes‘ Don Quixote and discover the magic he had unearthed some seven years prior with the legendary Dances with Wolves, however with out the earnestness of the Oscar-winning saga. Will Patton, a terrific actor who additionally appeared with Costner 10 years prior within the Cold War spy thriller, No Way Out, has the misfortune of enjoying General Bethlehem, Costner’s nemesis. General Bethlehem and his males additionally occur to be ruthless racists and misogynists in an period that also allowed such characters to seem on the display and say sure dangerous phrases. Then Costner begins quoting William Shakespeare, and it simply retains going downhill from there. These are all issues you possibly can collect from watching the primary half-hour of the movie.
Somehow Costner additionally managed to wrangle the nice Tom Petty into making a cameo and unnecessarily besmirched the rock icon’s legacy within the means of all this.
What Was Costner Thinking (and Spending)?
In the opening scenes, we see Costner touring alone within the huge expanses of the Great Salt Flats in Utah and speaking to his horse. This results in possibly the essential query and general metaphor of the challenge. Was he genuinely lonely and looking for one thing to maintain him sane, or does Costner simply actually like to listen to his personal voice? The larger query is, when did this dangerous movie cease being about telling a compelling story, and develop into an ego entice and Costner’s private cash pit? Maybe he had sunk a lot cash into the challenge by the point they really bought to taking pictures the principal pictures, that there was no turning again for The Postman. It’s no secret that Costner just isn’t probably the most modest man to ever make his personal movies, however how might he presumably have thought that this might work out effectively for him?
Fool me as soon as (Waterworld) disgrace on you. Fool me twice (The Postman) disgrace on me. There’s loads of disgrace to go round, however we actually do not suppose the newly topped king of the fashionable Western cares a technique or one other. As lengthy as he is capable of transfer on to the following challenge. And although we could not monitor down an actual determine for what Costner spent on The Postman, no matter revenue he had produced from all his good work in The Untouchables, Field of Dreams, The Bodyguard, and Dances with Wolves needed to be gone by the point he was finished footing many of the invoice for this $20 million mess. His Everyman Ray Kinsella character from Field of Dreams simply wasn’t going to fly in a hardscrabble, lawless frontier. You’re not within the corn fields anymore, Kevin, and the New World Order can’t be settled by two middle-aged white males grappling with one another like highschool wrestlers.
Did He Learn from this Fiasco?
After a nightmarish finish to the millennium that noticed Costner fall from the ranks of A-list, bona fide, show-up-and-shoot moneymakers to an actor that was approaching dreaded “has been” standing, you’d suppose he would avoid any additional cash vacuums. For probably the most half, he has. In the twenty first century, he has produced seven extra movies. All of them have obtained blended to good evaluations, notably 2003’s Open Range, a Yellowstone-like western yarn that made greater than a 300% revenue from its $20 million funds. And the aforementioned Black or White that turned a tidy revenue on a small funds. In latest years, Costner has discovered his area of interest throughout the Western style with the critically acclaimed, Let Him Go in 2020 which he starred reverse Sissy Spacek, and now the Paramount tv blockbuster Yellowstone below the regular hand of creator Taylor Sheridan. Costner can also be set to provide, direct, and star in one other Western, Horizon, within the spring of this yr. He will share the display with Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Luke Wilson, and Thomas Haden Church. But truthful warning! General Bethlehem — Will Patton — can also be set to pal up with Costner within the new movie, too. This time the pairing feels extra proper than it’s in The Postman.