By the time mid-May rolled around, some anxious fans in the U.S. were left wondering what happened to the much anticipated release of OPEN RANGE.

Instead, the film surfaced in France. Kevin Costner & company made a late decision to enter the Western out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where it previewed on May 17th. This was Costner's first visit to Cannes.

Variety reports that Filmax, a Spanish distributor, dug deep into its pocket and closed a deal on Costner's latest entry into the genre.

Although the pre-Cannes buzz surrounding the film had been mixed, apparently Filmax reps were impressed with what they saw.

Tiff Bartlett, a documentarian from Austin, Texas who worked with Costner on location in Calgary, Canada last summer, tells ReadTheWest.com that she can "attest to [the film's] classic form." According to Bartlett, OPEN RANGE is "a western which might help revivify the genre."

Although many western fans here in the states are certainly willing to hope for as much, some aren't nearly as certain the film will be embraced to that degree....

Article & POLL continued in our August 2003 issue:
"Costner & OPEN RANGE: Frustrated fans 'want to like' Costner's western. So what's the beef?"

PLOT:   Following the day-to-day encounters of four cattle herders who roam the countryside without owning a particular piece of land, or "freegrazers" (Costner, Duvall, Luna, Benrubi), living in the final years of the Wild West, this film tells the story of how they eventually team up to rid a burgeoning remote town from the machinations of a ruthlessly evil rancher, Baxter (Gambon), who forms a sort of "outlaw state" where he makes the laws and rules, and enforces them using scare tactics and brute force.
Based on the 1990 novel The Open Range Men by Lauran Paine. (out of print)

Budget: $20 million

Theartrical Release Date: August 15, 2003

Producers: David Valdes, Kevin Costner, Craig Storper

Director: Kevin Costner

Who's in it:
Kevin Costner, Robert Duvall, Annette Bening