Dances with wolves

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Dances With Wolves

Dances With Wolves is a western - a rather obvious statement, but its director, Kevin Costner, has created something far removed from the popular western of the 50's and 60's. Westerns have not been a fashionable genre for some time, so Costner had problems getting his project off the ground in the first place as it proved to be something the film industry was not too keen to back. Together with his co-producer, Jim Wilson, Costner decided that the book written by a friend, Michael Blake, was the story he wanted to use to make the first feature for their film company, TIG Productions. As the genre was not considered to be one which would bring box office success, Costner had to provide the funds for the development of the script until financial backing could be found. In fact, the film, about the American West, ended up partly funded by a British backer, Majestic Films International, who made a basic deal including the foreign sales rights. It was only after striking this deal that Costner was able to approach a US studio, Orion Pictures, (the original deal with Island Pictures having fallen through) , who agreed to split the cost of the film on a 50 - 50 basis.

In backing Costner's venture, Orion pictures were really banking on the pull of its director and star, Kevin Costner himself. He had already proved his appeal in films such as No Way Out , The Untouchables, Bull Durham and Field of Dreams . Indeed, baseball movies were just as unfashionable as westerns, but Costner had managed to turn Bull Durham (backed by Orion Pictures) and Field of Dreams , both baseball movies, into box office smash hits. Obviously, they were relying on him to do the same for the western. Costner envisaged his western as being an epic on a large scale, so his budget of $18 million was used up easily supporting a huge cast shooting on location. Costner is the only "star" in the film, the supporting roles being taken by Native America...