Kevin Costner’s first foray into publishing, the handsomely produced The Explorers Guild is a swashbuckling tale of the search for a lost city. Set during World War I, the book tells of a secret society racing against time and space from the North Pole to Mongolia to find Shambala.
The richly-illustrated book, (Rick Ross) is written by Jon Baird and Costner.
In this e-mail interview, the 60-year-old actor-director talks of the genesis of the book, collaborations, egos, publishing and more.
Excerpts :
What about The Explorers Guild got you interested in venturing into publishing?
Part of what has made this project such an interesting and unique experience for me is that, from the start, we’ve given our stories and ideas the time and space to develop; and we’ve let the strongest ideas dictate where we’d go with them, versus starting our calculations with a demographic and format and then working back to the idea. In other words, we jumped into The Explorers Guild about nine years ago without any real end-game in mind, just an idea, or a world. We had what I thought were a compelling group of characters and a rich set of storylines, with some excellent concept art and a different sort of authorial voice. We started tinkering with animation as a first step, and I funded these efforts myself.
We got what I thought were some interesting results, too. When this first foray had run its course, Jon renewed the book idea. His background is in publishing and we’ve always felt that a book would come out of this sooner or later, but it just seemed, as we backed up from the animation and surveyed what we had and where we wanted to go, that the book was our best way forward. And by the time we’d got our first chapter into shape and I was able to look at lay-outs with Jon and Rick, our illustrator, there was no more doubt about it.
How has the division of labour between you and Jon been?
Generally, and thankfully, The Explorers Guild creation process has always been fairly ego-free and workmanlike. There’s not the usual wrangling over turf, or the insistence on getting one’s own thumbprints all over the product. In the case of the book, since this was a format I hadn’t worked in before, my initial thought was that I’d take more of a back-seat role in its development.
I felt I was there to clear space for Jon, to let him set a course for this and to throw what weight I could behind him. He is the sort of writer, who is open to ideas. I recall early drafts coming in, and it taking a while to see where he was going; but as the story came into focus and I could see how good it really was, I also saw areas where we could amplify or expand, or places where I could suggest different decisions, or set up new or different storylines. To be honest there wasn’t much score-keeping; I didn’t comb through drafts to see how much was mine. And to this day neither of us is entirely sure which passages are whose. I’ll take that as a sign of a successful collaboration.
You told the USA Today , “My greatest hope is that it could be an heirloom.” Could you elaborate?
Well, you only have to open The Explorers Guild to see, on the inside front cover, a mocked-up bookplate, where an older person is shown reading to a boy and girl by firelight.
This is a book that is made to be shared between generations, and that welcomes young and old into a rich, expansive reading experience. There is a quality in the storytelling and in the format that should open some fairly intricate ideas to younger readers, while not ever talking down to them.
And I think there is a depth and weight to the story that will set no real ceiling, age-wise, for our audience. So I do hope this becomes a book that grandparents are able to share with children and grandchildren; but even beyond that I don’t feel that it needs to be read at any particular time, or against and particular geographic or cultural backdrop, to be appreciated.
Is there going to be a movie version of the book?
I’ve felt from the start that there’s an excellent movie to be made out of this book. I find that, on re-reading the piece, I’ve been making notes here and there about through-lines for a film.
I voiced Sloane in some early animation tests; though I’ve thought for some time now that if we do develop a film adaptation I’d take the John Ogden part. But I should say, it was very important to Jon and me that the book not be a short-cut for a movie, or a puffed-up screenplay.
