Oscar-winning actor/director Kevin Costner hasn’t directed a film since 2003’s excellent western Open Range. Well, it looks like Costner is about to get back into the directors saddle with the World War II action-adventure A Little War of Our Own. He’s also set to star in Learning Italian, a spy comedy from his Fandango, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Waterworld director, Kevin Reynolds.

Costner will star in Our Own Private War, which is due to start shooting in the fall. According to Variety the film "centers on a sheriff who must try to keep a town from exploding into violence.”

Costner will portray the sheriff in the film, which sounds like a modern (ish) western – a genre that Costner is right at home in after starring in the above mentioned Open Range, as well as Dances With Wolves, Wyatt Earp and Silverado. Heck, even the much-maligned (but rather good) The Postman is a futuristic western.

Armyan Bernstein’s Beacon Pictures will fully finance the film, which at the minute is looking for its other lead actor to play a “German U-boat commander.” I’m hoping for Inglourious Basterds’ Christoph Waltz!

Bernstein is quoted as saying:

"This has been a dream project for Kevin and I for years. The themes are timeless -- war, peace and reconciliation. The canvas is epic -- look at the movies Kevin has directed."

I’m a big fan of Costner’s  work (especially his directorial efforts) and this sounds like the sort of film that he could pull off with aplomb. The man has skill for bringing epic films to the screen - he’s got an eye for visuals and a feel for pacing that harkens back to the golden days of the epic. While many feel that his films are long and stilted, I feel that he’s making classic films that will stand the test of time.

Deadline also reports that Costner (who has now switched agencies from CAA to WME) is set to star in a spy comedy called Learning Italian for his old friend Kevin Reynolds.

According to Deadline:

“Costner will play a CIA agent who has been stationed in an idyllic coastal town in Italy to keep an eye on a KGB agent there -- until both secret agencies order the two spies to return to their respective countries and cook up a pseudo-threat to justify their continued stays in Italy.”

Sounds good to me in a Burn After Reading type way. If done well, Learning Italian could be the film that puts Costner back into the hearts of audiences again. Costner and Reynolds famously clashed when making Robin Hood and Waterworld, but they’ve been talking about working together again for years.

Deadline also states that Costner is set to direct another Western called Horizon, a film that I believe has been on the boil since Open Range was released. A four-hour prequel (which we told you about last year) starts shooting in the spring for A&E.

Costner could easily have made a solid career by making sequels to Robin Hood, The Untouchables, Dances With Wolves and The Bodyguard, but he decided to make original projects that weren’t sure-fire hits at the box office. He even turned down the part of Jack Ryan in The Hunt for Red October and Harrison Ford’s role in Air Force One!

You can find out more about these projects at Screen Rant when we get it.

Source: Variety and Deadline