St. George • When Kevin Costner was mulling over where to film his “Horizon” franchise, he heard the southern Utah landscapes he glimpsed as a boy in theaters and gandered at during his travels as an adult calling to him.
In the foreword he penned for Utah film historian James D’Arc’s book, “When Hollywood Came to Utah,” the actor and director rhapsodized about the state and its longtime hold on him.
“A steady wind has been pushing me my whole life to this point. To Utah. To Horizon” Costner wrote. “Where could I film this story that has been speaking so loudly to me for over 35 years that would do it justice? I simply thank God that scales came off my eyes and in front of me stood Utah.”
Costner, like many other filmmakers before him, took a shine to Washington County, where much of the still unreleased second installment was filmed. D’Arc, who compiled 33 years of research into his book, said it’s easy to see what drew Costner and other filmmakers to the St. George area over the decades.
“The scenery has always been there,” said D’Arc. But the author says the area’s rapid growth and accompanying upgrades to infrastructure and eateries put it on the cusp of filmmaking resurgence — one that officials hope will echo the days of Robert Redford, as a major movie studio rises up from the red dirt of St. George.
“Washington County checks so many boxes,” said Joyce Kelly, film manager for the Greater Zion Convention and Tourism Office.
The region’s rich film history dates back to the 1920s. At the time, movie trade papers complained about the lack of variety in movie landscapes, bemoaning the fact that virtually all the Westerns were being filmed at Lone Pine, California, or in the hills of the San Fernando Valley.
Enter southern Utah’s striking red rock cliffs and nearby Zion National Park. Also helping the push, D’Arc said, were Gronway, Chauncey and Caleb “Whit” Parry, entrepreneurs who shot photos of its scenic beauty to draw movie crews away from Hollywood.
One of the first motion pictures shot in Washington County was “Ramona,” a silent movie about a historic romance between a Spanish woman and a Mestizo Indian that was largely filmed in Zion.
For the 1927 film, crews constructed elaborate sets in the park: a lavish estate at the Temple of Sinawava and a cabin on the West Rim Trail. The cabin was intentionally burned down as part of the plot, an action that earned the park’s superintendent, Eivend T. Scoyen, a verbal reprimand from National Park Service Director Stephen Mather, according to D’Arc.
An eye for an eye
A slew of Hollywood films followed, including “In Old Arizona,” widely recognized as the first “talkie” Western. The movie earned Warner Baxter an Academy Award for his portrayal of the Cisco Kid and was largely shot in the ghost town of Grafton near Zion.
After a sound truck broke down during the shoot near Grafton, the crew headed back to Los Angeles to film the remaining scenes. Director Raoul Walsh was sitting beside the driver in the front seat of the car as they rushed to the airport in the dark to catch a flight.
“We missed outcrops and cattle and once scattered a herd of deer,” D’Arc quotes Walsh saying in his book. “The only thing we did not miss was a big jack rabbit.”
Startled by the car’s headlights, the rabbit jumped through the passenger side window, sending glass splinters into Walsh’s face and causing blood to flow from his right eye.
“The badly damaged eye was removed at Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City,” D’Arc wrote, “and Walsh sported a fashionable eye patch for the rest of his life, courtesy of a Utah jackrabbit.”
Washington County’s time to shine
(BYU Special Collections) Director John Powell and actor John Wayne film in St. George for the movie, "The Conqueror," from the book "When Hollywood Came to Utah, Centennial Edition."
Despite its scenic locales, Washington County played a supporting role in Utah’s early film history. The reason, D’Arc says, was Kanab, where the Parry brothers had built a lodge to host film crews in the town that came to be known as “Little Hollywood.”
D’Arc said many St. George locals drove to Kanab to work on the films, effectively reinforcing the Kane County town’s dominance. Meanwhile, St. George city leaders showed little interest in drumming up much movie business.
When eight movie scouts from RKO Radio Pictures turned up in St. George in the early 1950s to look for locations to film a “religious extravaganza,” they were greeted with little fanfare. That movie turned out to be “The Conqueror,” a widely panned historical drama about Genghis Khan starring John Wayne and Susan Hayward that debuted in 1956.
While the movie was a flop with critics, it marked a shift for the region’s filmmaking.
When the 220-member cast and crew arrived, the town sprang into action, according to D’Arc. Local school buses ferried crews, motels were filled to the brim, and Dixie High School was repurposed for dressing the cast and costume storage.
All told, about 700 of St. George’s 4,300 residents were hired as extras, stand-ins or other jobs for the film and roughly 300 members of the nearby Shivwits Band of Paiutes Reservation were cast as Mongols and warriors, according to D’Arc.
Overwhelmed by the support, Wayne gushed about St. George.
“This is the way we like to think of America — people cheerfully helping people simply because that’s a good way to live,” Wayne said, according to D’Arc.
By the time the last film crew left St. George, D’Arc writes, “it was estimated RKO had poured $750,000 into the St. George economy,” a total which translates to more than $9 million in 2026 dollars.
The film would later gain a grim reputation. D’Arc noted that some subsequently dubbed the film “An RKO Radioactive Picture,” due to the high cancer rates among the production team. John Wayne, Susan Hayward, and 43 other cast members died from cancer, which many suspect was caused by radioactive fallout from atomic testing that took place at Yucca Flats, Nevada, only 145 miles from St. George.
The Sundance Kid
(BYU Special Collections) Robert Redford and Jane Fonda act out a scene at Snow Canyon State Park for the movie "The Electric Horseman," from the book "When Hollywood Came to Utah, Centennial Edition."
Hollywood moviemaking in Utah slowed considerably in the 1960s. D’Arc needs just two words to sum up its resurgence in the late ’60s through the 1970s.
Robert Redford.
D’Arc said the actor, who died in September at 89, had driven through the St. George area since the mid-1950s, was impressed with its moviemaking potential and subsequently sold Twentieth Century Fox on southern Utah.
“They were initially going to film ‘Butch Cassidy [and the Sundance Kid]’ in New Mexico,” Redford relates in D’Arc’s book. “I got them to come and look at St. George and, of course, much of it was filmed there.”
After daily filmings wrapped up at places like Grafton, Snow Canyon and Zion, Paul Newman, Redford and other cast members retired to Dick’s Cafe for dinner.
“Paul Newman would make the salad for everyone,” D’Arc writes. “Even then, before Newman’s Own, he would have the ingredients brought to him and … make the salad dressing.”
Redford returned to film 1972’s “Jeremiah Johnson.” This critically-acclaimed movie, which the actor persuaded the studio to shoot in Utah rather than Spain, tells the story of a mountain man attempting to carve out a life in the wilderness. A particularly memorable scene from the film was shot at Ivins reservoir, where Johnson, played by Redford, is compelled to accept a Native American wife.
The actor was back seven years later, this time with Jane Fonda and Willie Nelson, to film “The Electric Horseman.” The movie stars Redford as a washed-up rodeo star working as a spokesperson for a cereal company who absconds with its $12 million racehorse and sets it free in the Utah wilderness.
“Redford was really the catalyst for the renaissance of Hollywood moviemaking in Utah,” D’Arc told The Tribune.
Redford left little doubt of his feelings about the area, telling St. George writer Lyman Hafen in an interview years ago that “his fondness for St. George almost approaches a sacred degree.”
“The best developer in St. George has been God himself,” D’Arc quotes Redford telling Hafen.
During his 1984 interview with the star, Hafen noted Redford proposed building a major studio in St. George. The idea was to allow interior shots and other movie work to be done locally instead of in California.
“But his focus turned elsewhere and that never materialized,” Hafen told The Tribune.
Costner and ‘Horizon’
(Greater Zion Convention and Tourism Office) Director Kevin Costner, right, speaks with extras on the set of "Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2" in Washington County in 2023.
More than four decades later, a St. George studio is finally coming to fruition. Costner has teamed up with St. George developer Brett Burgess to build the $100-million plus Territory Film Studios near the St. George Regional Airport.
The timing, state film officials say, reflects how far Washington County has come as a production center.
“Washington County has been the backdrop for so many films over the years,” said Virginia Pearce, director of the Utah Film Commission. What started as a location-driven draw has evolved into something much bigger — experienced crews, growing infrastructure, and a developing workforce. The county, Utah Tech University, and private industry have all played a role in turning the region into a true filmmaking hub.”
The Horizon series was projected to pump $90 million in the Washington County economy.
Alas, chapter one of the franchise cost $100 million to make and grossed an estimated $38.7 million worldwide during its 2024 run, barely more than the $38 million Costner invested of his own money in the film.
Chapter two of the franchise, which has already been completed and features the Shivwits reservation and other areas of Washington County, is on hiatus while Costner figures out how to address funding, distribution and other issues surrounding the production, according to D’Arc.
Kelly, with Greater Zion, said the actor is still intent on finishing the four-movie series and his love for the area remains undiminished.
The actor just cut a 30-second video for Greater Zion pitching the area to other filmmakers.
“He’s so in love with the scenery here and believes the area needs to be shown on the big screen to do it justice,” Kelly said.
Whatever happens to Horizon, D’Arc said the studio Costner and his partner are building is a game changer when it comes to adding the next chapter to the area’s storied moviemaking past.
“It will be a major factor in attracting more filmmakers to the Washington County area,” he said.