If Kevin Costner Backs It, But The Movie Is 'Swing Vote,' Will They Come? [Field Of Pipe Dreams]

Perhaps it's due to all those episodes of Behind the Music we watched back in the day, but we've always assumed that no matter how big a fortune a megastar may amass, he or she will eventually waste it all on hookers or blow. Not so, apparently, for Kevin Costner: though far removed from his Waterworld earning power, he's socked enough in the bank to still be worth over $20 million. Unfortunately, he spent that $20 million self-financing the dire-looking comedy Swing Vote. Says the LAT:

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.

...Costner decided to star in the film and looked for a backer for "Swing Vote's" tentative $20-million budget. But the model some financiers wanted to use — by raising capital through foreign pre-sales — didn't strike him as equitable.

"They want to raise it on your name, but you're not actually benefiting from that," Costner says. "So I looked to my wife and said, 'Why don't we just do this?'"

We can think of three separate reasons why not, but who are we to judge? Oh, right, we're Defamer. In that case, Kevin, kudos for your financial risk-taking, but in this weekend's Mummy/Swing Vote matchup, we're casting a third party vote for another viewing of The Dark Knight.
Published 7/31/08 by


Defamer

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