LA Times (7/31/08): “Kevin Costner bets on himself again in ‘Swing Vote’”
Talk about putting your money where your mouth is! Per this article in today’s LA Times, Kevin Costner ponied up $21M of his own personal stash to finance the movie Swing Vote:
KEVIN COSTNER’S “Swing Vote” tells the story of an apathetic man floating through life, happy to play whatever cards life deals him. Costner’s approach to making the film couldn’t have been more different: Rather than watch the Capra-esque fable about a deadlocked election drift away, the actor stepped up to invest more than $21 million of his own money to finance it.
“I’m not a fool,” says Costner, who both stars in and produced “Swing Vote” with longtime partner Jim Wilson. “I do my own math, and I know at the end of the day what’s at risk. I don’t call it a roll of the dice. I call it a calculated risk.”
Lucky for the movie’s screenwriters Jason Richman and Joshua Michael Stern that Costner stepped up to the plate:
“Swing Vote,” written by Jason Richman and Joshua Michael Stern and directed by Stern, was a classic case of a movie caught for years in Hollywood’s slowly grinding machinery. “It had been around, and some companies had tried to make it, but interest had waned,” Costner says.
So Costner not only saved the project from the depths of “development hell,” he’s also made a profit from his investment — even before the movie’s release:
When the film went slightly over budget, Costner kicked in an additional $1.3 million. But then Disney bought the film’s domestic distribution rights, and with other territories sold off, Costner says he’s now about $1 million in the black.
“But we’re going to do great,” he says. “I own this movie for the rest of its life. And that’s like owning beachfront property.”
The movie’s got a great high concept. And with its populist theme, it might resonate with Americans who seemed to have connected with the political process this year. Here’s the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD6SMqBlJ2w