Sienna Miller: I Was 'Obsessed' with Costner's 'Dances with Wolves'

Costner and Miller are co-stars in 'Horizon: An American Saga'. Valery HACHE / AFP
Costner and Miller are co-stars in 'Horizon: An American Saga'. Valery HACHE / AFP
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Sienna Miller: I Was 'Obsessed' with Costner's 'Dances with Wolves'

Costner and Miller are co-stars in 'Horizon: An American Saga'. Valery HACHE / AFP
Costner and Miller are co-stars in 'Horizon: An American Saga'. Valery HACHE / AFP

Sienna Miller was such a huge fan of Kevin Costner's films when growing up that she named her pet rabbits after animals in "Dances With Wolves".
Now she is starring alongside Costner in his ambitious film series "Horizon: An American Saga" -- a four-part project that he mortgaged his home to fund, said AFP.
The first two installments -- each some three hours long -- hit cinemas this summer, with the first released on June 28.
Miller, 42, said she remained star-struck.
"I'm a child of the 90s. I can still barely look at Kevin, because he was such a huge part of my childhood," she told AFP.
Costner's Oscar-winning "Dances with Wolves" from 1990 was "the first time I really had my heart broken by a film -- I was obsessed with it," Miller said.
She had two pet rabbits named Two Socks and Cisco after the wolf and horse in the film.
"Horizon" follows multiple characters and storylines on the violent frontier of the 19th century as European settlers took over Native American land, with Miller playing a woman whose family is attacked and faces a brutal struggle to survive.
"I like to think I would be an OK frontier woman. I'm more outdoorsy than you might assume," she said.
"But I don't think it would have been fun. I know Kevin says he wished he lived back then. I think it was a very difficult time to have been alive."
Miller was pregnant for the filming of the second installment, which made the conditions even tougher.
"We were really out in nature. That was hard, because you're in corsets and it's boiling and there are scorpions and rattlesnakes.
"I found earth, that red earth, in my hair for like a month. Up my nose, ears, every orifice. Well, not every orifice," she added with a laugh.
Only Costner knew she was pregnant during the second shoot.
"I was feeling pretty sick. That corset was not my friend!"
'Horrific genocide'
Miller welcomed the chance to learn more about the history of the period.
"This country with an indigenous people who were exterminated violently, brutally, in a horrific genocide -- that isn't talked about nearly enough," she said.
"It's a bloody history and a gory history and a devastating history. But it happened. And I think to be able to look at it and not get too political, but just to show the truth of it, that's refreshing."
Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, where "Horizon" got its world premiere last month, Costner told AFP he began working on the script way back in 1988 but could never find a studio to back it.
"But I loved it and so I decided I would write four, which is very American of me -- insane," he said.
Reviews so far have been decidedly mixed, however, with IndieWire calling it "the dullest vanity project of the century" while The Telegraph gushed over its "sheer, magisterial sweep".
Costner says he has no concerns about bankrupting himself.
"What's the fear? If they take it away from me, I still have my movie. I still have my integrity. I still listened to my heart," he said.



Nintendo Showcases ‘Super Mario’, Game Boy History in New Museum

Characters Mario and Luigi are seen at the grand opening of the Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, Los Angeles, California, US, February 15, 2023. (Reuters)
Characters Mario and Luigi are seen at the grand opening of the Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, Los Angeles, California, US, February 15, 2023. (Reuters)
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Nintendo Showcases ‘Super Mario’, Game Boy History in New Museum

Characters Mario and Luigi are seen at the grand opening of the Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, Los Angeles, California, US, February 15, 2023. (Reuters)
Characters Mario and Luigi are seen at the grand opening of the Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, Los Angeles, California, US, February 15, 2023. (Reuters)

Japanese firm Nintendo will next week open a museum showcasing its history, where fans of "Super Mario", "The Legend of Zelda" and the Game Boy and Switch can gain insight into one of the world's most renowned game makers.

Located in Uji near the company's Kyoto headquarters, the museum underscores the many evolutions of Nintendo, which was founded in 1889 as a maker of "hanafuda" playing cards and is now a global gaming giant.

Shigeru Miyamoto, executive fellow at Nintendo and creator of "Super Mario", said the museum was intended to deepen understanding of the company.

"If making products while protecting concepts such as family, fun and ease of understanding is rooted in our employees then the new Nintendo will continue to grow," he told reporters.

The museum, which opens to the public Oct. 2, is located on the site of a plant that used to make playing cards and was a center for product repairs. Tickets on its website are sold out for the following two months.

In addition to displaying iconic devices such as the Wii console and the handheld Game Boy, visitors will be able to see lesser known products such as the "Mamaberica" baby stroller and the "Copilas" printer.

The museum also offers a range of interactive experiences, with visitors able to partner to play the video game "Super Mario Bros." featuring mustachioed plumber Mario on a single, oversized Family Computer controller.

While a push into mobile gaming has tapered off, other efforts by Nintendo to expand beyond its core gaming business have gained traction with the company opening stores and employing its roster of characters in theme parks and film.

The Switch console has been a runaway success with an install base exceeding 140 million units, but with sales slowing, investor attention in now focused on the prospects for a successor device, with Nintendo due to reveal details in the current financial year, which ends in March.