So we went to see Wolf of Wall Street last night (man, there are a lot of drugs in that movie), and as always, we had to sit through previews first. There were about five of them, and guess who was starring in three of the five trailers? Kevin freakin' Costner.
Not one, not two, but three trailers for movies starring Kevin Costner were showed back to back to back before the movie. Yes, our title is a bit of an over exaggeration and he's not going to be in every 2014 movie, but like we said, when you notice that 60 percent of your trailers star Kevin Costner, you sense a real pattern. We shall now call it the Costner Hat Trick.
Look, the man has been working steadily since the early '80s, so we don't really want to call it a comeback. But when is the last time you saw Kevin Costner's face in so many movie trailers and on so many movie posters? And all three of these movies are coming out within weeks of each other. Plus, Kevin is filming two other films this year!
And he's not playing side roles in these films like he did in Man of Steel. Sure, Jonathan Kent is a very pivotal role, but he wasn't onscreen for a majority of that movie. Anyway, in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (out Jan. 17), he plays opposite Chris Pine as a CIA agent who may or may not have ulterior motives. He's all over that trailer, acting mysterious and making quips about Jack and his relationship to Cathy (Keira Knightley).
Then, on Feb. 21, Costner will star as Ethan Runner in 3 Days to Kill. He's playing yet another badass, a former Secret Service agent who has to complete one last lethal assignment in order to save his own life. He's running around beating up people, blowing crap up and trying to spend time with his daughter, Zoey (Hailee Steinfeld).
Finally, on April 11, we get our third Kevin Costner movie in four months. Draft Day is a sports-comedy story about the general manager of the Cleveland Browns trying to secure the number one pick in the draft. Kevin plays the smooth, smart and probably slightly crazy Sonny Weaver, Jr. He's funny, he's headstrong and he's the star once again.
Not only is he leading three movies this year (and that's all before summer), but the people he's working with are nothing to sneeze at. Jennifer Garner, Ellen Burstyn, Denis Leary, Amber Heard, Kenneth Branagh and Sam Elliot, just to name a few. Plus, his future projects (Black and White and McFarland) include thesps like Octavia Spencer and Maria Bello. Oh, and Morgan Saylor, also known as Homeland's Dana "The Worst" Brody, is in McFarland with Costner. So, there's that.
The point of this observation, if there really is a point, is that Kevin Costner hasn't had more than one film come out in one year since 2005 (The Upside of Anger and Rumor Has It), and we for one are very excited to see our Bodyguard coming at us spitfire in 2014. He already won an Emmy for Hatfields & McCoys in 2012, so let the "comeback" continue!
We're calling it now. 2014 will be the year of the Costner.