COSTNER DEVELOPING 4-HOUR WESTERN FOR A&E

“Reckon I crapped my pants”

A&E sure scored themselves an awesome project when they signed up Kevin Costner to develop a 4-hour Western miniseries in which he might also appear on-screen.  To my knowledge, it is A&E’s first original Western since the epic bore Broken Trail.  Never heard of Broken Trail?  There’s a reason for that. [UPDATE: Broken Trail was AMC, not A&E.  Although in my defense, they DO rhyme.]

The untitled project has Costner partnering with producer Armyan Bernstein (“The Hurricane,” “Open Range”) to tell a post-Civil War story covering a major conflict in the settlement of the West. Costner will executive produce and might direct part of the miniseries… Costner might also appear in the project, depending on the final script.

“Costner understands the Western better than anybody, and he respects the genre,” said Tana Nugent Jamieson, the network’s senior vp drama programming. [The Live Feed]

Really?  Better than ANYBODY?  The man who made The Postman, the wildly overrated Dances with Wolves, the actually not-bad Open Range, and the movie about Wyatt Earp that can’t hold Tombstone’s jock understands the Western better than, oh, I don’t know… CLINT EASTWOOD?  Sure, whatever.