Produced by and starring Kevin Costner, Waterworld hit cinema screens in 1995 on the back of reports of on-set difficulties and spiralling budgets. Set in a distant future where the polar ice caps have melted, covering the whole of Earth in water, Waterworld was intended as a warning about what might face our planet if we don’t amend our ways ecologically.

Instead, the film wound up being a cautionary tale of how clashing egos and rampant over-spending can’t be counted on to save a movie – though they can still result in a slice of pure, post-apocalyptic sci-fi action fun. Below are some things you didn’t know about Waterworld.

Waterworld’s writer has admitted the film is a Mad Max rip-off

A film set in a post-apocalyptic future in which a gruff loner does battle with hordes of feral maniacs in motorised vehicles, Waterworld is a pretty bald-faced imitation of George Miller’s Mad Max series – and not by accident. The original idea behind the Waterworld screenplay was, simply, to create “a Mad Max rip-off.”

The first Waterworld script was written by Peter Rader in 1986, in the wake of 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. It would be nine years before the story was put on film, and while it would be a far cry from what Rader originally envisioned, Waterworld would share one key figure with the Mad Max movies: director of photography Dean Semler, who also shot Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome.

One set sank and others floated away

From Jaws to Titanic, many water-based movies have proved to be huge hits – but shooting conditions also present significant problems for filmmakers during production. The production of Waterworld was beset with such on-set difficulties, mainly due to what has become known in insurance terms as ‘acts of God’.

Waterworld was shot in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii, in a specially-built artificial enclosure. Situated far off-land, the enclosure was still vulnerable to the elements. Treacherous weather caused one expensive set to sink completely, whilst high winds caused others to float away from their original location.

Kevin Costner nearly died filming the scene where he’s tied to the trimaran

Kevin Costner was at the height of his action hero fame when Waterworld came along. Always keen to do his own stunts, on Waterworld Costner found himself at greater risk than ever before, with one scene requiring Costner’s unnamed Mariner to be tied to the mast of his trimaran boat.

While shooting the scene, a sudden localised storm whipped up whilst Costner was bound, meaning the actor’s life was briefly at genuine risk – not just from the ocean below, but from the helicopter shooting him a mere 20 feet overhead. Thankfully, Costner also had stunt doubles, including pro-surfer Laird Hamilton.

Costner did the bungee and zipline stunts himself

Kevin Costner had a number of experienced stunt doubles for some of Waterworld’s more challenging physical feats. It really was Costner, however, who performed the moment the Mariner spectacularly rides a lengthy zip line from high above ground.

Costner also performed (on his very last day of filming) the bungee jump that occurs during the final showdown with the Smokers. The actor didn’t actually leap from a floating hot air balloon, but from a platform in a studio parking lot in front of a giant bluescreen. The shot they used is of the only time the team pulled the stunt off.

Screenwriter Joss Whedon called his time on the film “seven weeks of hell”

Credit: Kevin Winter via Getty

Officially there are two credited screenwriters on Waterworld: original scribe Peter Rader, and David Twohy. However, one noteworthy scribe hired to work on the film as a script doctor was future Buffy creator Joss Whedon, who would go on to describe his experience working on the movie as “seven weeks of hell.”

It wasn’t just the imploding production that he found problematic – Whedon was also required to write Kevin Costner’s new ideas into the script, with no room to input any ideas of his own. (Of course, according to recent reports, Whedon himself knows a lot about making other people’s lives miserable on film and TV sets.)

Director Kevin Reynolds walked away before the movie was completed, leaving Costner to take over

Kevin Reynolds is given full credit as the director of Waterworld, but the truth is more complicated. During the post-production process, Reynolds wound up walking away from the movie before it was finished, in response to Costner having “a back-seat driver director mentality” that saw the star trying to call the shots.

Once Reynolds left the movie, Costner – already an Oscar-winning director for Dances with Wolves – took charge of completing Waterworld himself. An embittered Reynolds was quoted as saying, “Kevin Costner should only star in movies he directs. That way, he can work with his favourite actor and favourite director.”

Kevin Costner rejected the original musical score for being ‘too ethnic’

Credit: Getty Images

Director Kevin Reynolds wasn’t the only person Kevin Costner clashed with in production on Waterworld. The leading man and producer also butted heads with the film’s original composer, Mark Isham. Costner rejected the musical demos that Isham had created for the movie’s score as “too ethnic and bleak.”

Costner wanted more traditionally stirring music befitting the upbeat blockbuster adventure he was hoping to make. To this end, Isham was dismissed from the film, and Pretty Woman and The Fugitive composer James Newton Howard was brought onto the project instead.

The film ended Costner’s career as a blockbuster leading man

Up to the release of Waterworld, Kevin Costner had enjoyed one of the hottest acting streaks in Hollywood history. Between 1988 and 1992, Costner starred in Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Dances with Wolves, JFK, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and The Bodyguard, all huge hits.

Initially, hopes were high that Waterworld would out-perform them all. However, three Costner films released prior to Waterworld – A Perfect World, Wyatt Earp and The War – underperformed. After Waterworld flopped, Costner’s blockbuster leading man days were effectively over.

The film was originally pitched as a $5 million B-movie

Credit: Vince Bucci/Newsmakers via Getty

The Waterworld we ended up with was very, very far removed from what was originally envisaged. Writer Peter Rader wrote the script at the behest of producer Brad Kevoy, with Rader also intended to direct. To get the film off the ground, they approached arguably the most iconic independent filmmaker of all time, Roger Corman.

After making his name as a director in the 1950s, Corman has produced over 400 films to date, mostly on very low budgets. However, Corman baulked at producing Waterworld as it was calculated there was no way the film could be made for less than $5 million – a fraction of what the film would ultimately cost.

It was the most expensive film ever made at the time

When it originally hit cinemas, Waterworld was the single most expensive film in Hollywood history. Reportedly, studio Universal initially greenlit Waterworld with a budget of $65 million, but this soon went up to $100 million. This alone was the biggest budget any movie had ever been granted up-front, and it only went higher.

After shooting delays and the destruction of sets, the budget ballooned first to $135 million, then finally landed somewhere between $172 and $175 million, an unprecedented sum at the time. This record would be beaten two years later by the $200 million Titanic – although that film’s $1.85 billion box office made it a significantly better investment.

Steven Spielberg warned the Waterworld team not to make a movie at sea

Credit: Universal Studios

Before work began on Waterworld, Kevin Reynolds met with legendary director Steven Spielberg for advice. Spielberg had his own experiences of shooting a film on the ocean, with his breakthrough 1975 classic Jaws. The director’s advice was simple when it came to making a movie on open water: if possible, don’t do it.

Reynolds recalls, “I asked Spielberg, ‘Do I want to shoot on the water?’ He said ‘You might. I’ll never do it again.'” Spielberg cautioned Reynolds that production on Jaws went 100 days over schedule, and 100% over budget. While Waterworld’s initial budget wasn’t quite doubled, the intended three-month shoot did wind up taking a little over six.

Dennis Hopper’s villain was turned down by Samuel L Jackson, Gary Oldman and more

Waterworld’s cartoonish, eyepatch-clad villain The Deacon was played by the late, great Dennis Hopper, who was enjoying a career resurgence as a blockbuster bad guy at the time thanks to other such roles in Super Mario Bros and Speed. However, Hopper was far from the only major Hollywood actor approached to play Waterworld’s antagonist.

Samuel L Jackson was offered the role, but turned it down in order to make Die Hard with a Vengeance. Gary Oldman also turned Waterworld down, reportedly choosing instead to appear in The Scarlet Letter by way of a coin toss. Gene Hackman, James Caan, Laurence Fishburne and Gary Busey all reportedly also passed.

Jack Black makes one of his first on-screen appearances in the film

Waterworld has something in common with another 90s sci-fi action-adventure, Demolition Man: both films feature early appearances from future movie star and cult rock music icon, Jack Black. Waterworld casts Black, who was 25 at the time, as one of the marauding Smokers (he’s officially credited as ‘Smoker Plane Pilot’).

Black would follow Waterworld with small roles in Mars Attacks and The Cable Guy before really breaking through with High Fidelity and School of Rock, as well as with his band Tenacious D. When asked about Waterworld in 2015, Black (jokingly) said “We crushed it, bro. I’m still trying to shake it. That’s what it’s going to say on my tombstone: Jack ‘Post-Apocalyptic Seaplane Pilot’ Black.”

Jeanne Tripplehorn personally chose her nude body double

Waterworld co-stars Jeanne Tripplehorn as Helen, guardian of Tina Majorino’s Enola. In a scene that we probably wouldn’t see in a PG-13 movie today, Helen is at one point shown naked from behind. Tripplehorn decided against performing this scene herself, but was intimately involved in choosing her body double.

In order to select the double who was the best match for herself physically, Tripplehorn arranged to meet three candidates in her trailer, where she could privately view their naked rear ends. Tripplehorn would also be present for the shooting of the nude scene, waiting to give her double a robe between shots.

Costner nicknamed Tina Majorino ‘Jellyfish Candy’ because she was stung so many times

Tina Majorino plays the key role of Enola, the girl with the coveted map to Dryland tattooed on her back. Majorino experienced her share of water-based problems during the film’s troubled production. For one, the young actress had incredibly bad luck with jellyfish, being stung a reported seven times throughout the shoot.

Majorino was stung so often she wound up being nicknamed ‘Jellyfish Candy’ by Kevin Costner. Waterworld was only Majorino’s fourth movie, and it helped launch her on a career which continues to this day – including a run on TV’s True Blood alongside Anna Paquin, the first choice to play Enola.

Costner was rumoured to have demanded CGI to hide his baldness

Reports of Costner’s behind the scenes bravado were commonplace during Waterworld’s production, with press lapping up rumours suggesting the film was just a grandiose vanity project for its star. One report had it that, with the wind-whipped actor’s thinning hair exposed throughout the film, Costner demanded CGI artists digitally augment his scalp.

Costner denied this at the time, declaring “it’s just bulls***, and [the press] are bulls*** for printing it.” The allegation has never been confirmed – but given that CGI artists couldn’t convincingly delete Henry Cavill’s moustache in 2017, it’s pretty unlikely that they could hide Costner’s baldness in 1995.

The film is not an accurate representation of how the melting of the ice caps would change the world

Waterworld was released at a time when environmentalism was gradually gaining prominence in news, politics and popular culture. On release in 1995, the action-adventure film was in part promoted as a warning for where we could be headed if we don’t take better care of the world.

There’s one problem: Waterworld is a highly inaccurate representation of what would occur should the polar ice caps melt. In reality, as cataclysmic as a total melt would be, much of the world would still be left above water. The screenwriters were aware of this, but it was agreed that a fully flooded Earth would make for a more dramatic setting.

‘Dryland’ is actually meant to be the top of Mount Everest

Waterworld centres on the struggle to locate the legendary Dryland, the last above-water ground still remaining on the planet. The map which supposedly leads to this promised land is tattooed on the back of Tina Majorino’s Enola, with the Chinese characters indeed serving as directions, listing points in longitude and latitude.

These coordinates mark out a real location: Mount Everest. Whilst Everest is not technically the world’s tallest mountain, it is the highest point above sea level on the planet’s surface. A scene deleted from the theatrical cut of Waterworld makes the plot point clear, when the survivors pass a plaque identifying the spot as Everest.

In one draft of the screenplay, the Mariner had a pet horse

Even before Kevin Costner was attached to star, Waterworld was thought to work like a Western at sea. This, no doubt, is part of why the central character is known only as The Mariner – a nod of sorts to Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name – though in Peter Rader’s first draft of the screenplay the Mariner was named Morgan.

Rader says that his original draft included something that tied Waterworld in closer to the Western genre: a horse, who lived on the boat with Morgan. However, at least six more writers worked on Waterworld after Rader, and it seems they all agreed that having a horse at sea was just too absurd an idea.

The Smokers’ ship was based on the Exxon Valdez, a real oil tanker that caused a notorious ecological disaster

Waterworld’s villains the Smokers have as their headquarters a mighty oil tanker named the Exxon Valdez. This was in fact a very real oil tanker, which became infamous for causing a catastrophic oil spill. The Exxon Valdez disaster occurred in March 1989, when the tanker owned by Exxon Shipping Company struck a reef near Alaska.

It was at the insistence of Kevin Reynolds that Waterworld makes direct reference to this notorious event, which the director calls “one of the most egregious accidents that humans had perpetrated on a pristine environment at the time.” Today, the Exxon Valdez spill is only the second worst of its kind, after the Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010.

Costner’s stunt double at one point got lost at sea jet-skiing between the set and the mainland

One of Kevin Costner’s stunt doubles on Waterworld was someone who was very much at home on the water, professional big wave surfer Laird Hamilton. Because he lived in Hawaii near the film set, Hamilton was in the habit of coming to set on his own by jet ski, but on one particular occasion, Reynolds recalls “he hadn’t shown up that morning for work. They called his wife and she said he left for work.”

“We sent the production helicopter out to try and find him and they couldn’t find him, we thought he was lost at sea. Toward the end of the day they finally found him floating way out in the channel about to be swept out to sea.” Happily, Hamilton was okay. He would continue doubling for Costner on Waterworld, and seven years later he also doubled for Pierce Brosnan in Die Another Day’s infamous surfing scenes.

Another stunt double almost died shooting a deep sea diving scene

As mentioned earlier, Costner had a near-miss on the Waterworld set when tied to a boat in stormy conditions. Jeanne Tripplehorn and Tina Majorino also had some dicey moments, both being thrown overboard and hit by the boat. However, no one came closer to death on the Waterworld set than another of Costner’s stunt doubles, Norman Howell.

Howell doubled for Costner for some of the deep sea diving sequences, but terrifyingly he suffered a near-fatal embolism whilst shooting one such scene. The stunt performer had to be rushed to hospital, where he happily recovered in a decompression chamber. Believe it or not, he was back at work within a few days.

The budget was so high partly because local firms jacked up their prices when the film came to town

Waterworld’s budget was impacted by more than the sets sinking and delays caused by dangerous weather. Lots of comparatively minor expenses also wound up costing the filmmakers dearly, including computers and generators being stolen. The fact that Waterworld was shot in such a remote area of Hawaii also meant that local contractors saw the chance to cash in.

Location manager Ginger Peterson recalls, “Companies knew they were the only games in town and took advantage.” This resulted in the filmmakers being significantly over-charged for such basic amenities as portable toilets (which may have helped fuel rumours that there were no toilets available on set).

Kevin Costner stayed in a $4,500-a-night villa while most of the cast and crew had basic accommodation

One key expense on Waterworld was its leading man, Kevin Costner. For his work on the film, Costner commanded a reported salary of $13 million – and that wasn’t the end of it. The actor and producer was also reportedly put up in a luxurious ocean view villa at a cost of $4,500 a night. (Keep in mind the production ran for 157 days.)

Costner’s palatial lodgings came with a swimming pool, plus personal staff including a butler and a chef. Meanwhile, most of Waterworld’s cast and crew were given very basic digs which allegedly didn’t even have air conditioning. Unsurprisingly, this took its toll on the mood on set, with a great deal of resentment toward Costner on the part of the crew.

There are three available versions of the film

The theatrically released cut of Waterworld clocks in at 135 minutes. This is significantly shorter than Kevin Costner’s original preferred director’s cut, which lasted a full three hours. Later on, around 40 minutes of excised footage was re-integrated into a TV version of the movie broadcast by US network ABC.

Finally, there is an extended fan edit of Waterworld known as the ‘Ulysses cut,’ which reinserts further deleted footage including moments of violence and bad language that were previously censored. All three versions of the film are featured on the Blu-ray release of Waterworld released by Arrow Video in 2019.

Costner and Reynolds had already spectacularly fallen out making Robin Hood together

Credit: Morgan Creek Productions

It’s easy to view Waterworld as a sort-of sequel to Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, as it reunites that film’s director and leading man. However, when the two Kevins first got interested in making Waterworld, neither of them knew the other wanted to do it. They hadn’t spoken for some time, after falling out during post-production on the 1991 adventure film.

It was by total coincidence that when Reynolds reached out to producers Lawrence and Chuck Gordon to express interest in directing, Costner had already told the Gordons he was interested in starring. Initially, both Reynolds and Costner balked at the idea of working together again, but the producers persuaded them to put their personal differences to one side.

In the cut original ending, The Mariner leaves Dryland to look for other mutants

One question that’s left relatively unexplored in Waterworld is that of the Mariner’s origins, as a mutated man with gills that allow him to breathe underwater. We are shown that because of this mutation (introduced in re-writes by David Twohy), the Mariner is widely feared and hated by average humans – but we never meet another one of his kind.

Originally, Waterworld was to end on a reflective note, with the Mariner returning to the water in search of other mutants like him. This is director Kevin Reynolds’ preferred ending, and it was restored in the fan-edited Ulysses cut. However, this ending was removed from the theatrical cut, in which the Mariner declares he can’t settle on Dryland because he’s uncomfortable on stationary ground.

The Mariner’s water was originally going to be purified by a device containing a kidney-like organ

Waterworld immediately announces itself as a somewhat unconventional blockbuster thanks to its rather curious choice of opening. We are first shown Kevin Costner’s heroic Mariner as he urinates into a strange water purification device, then drinks the clear liquid which comes out of the other end.

As repulsive as this might be, the way the Mariner purifies his own urine is less disgusting than what the filmmakers originally considered. In the original script, the Mariner was going to have an organic device that closely resembled a human kidney. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this considered a bit too gross, so a more mechanical alternative was dreamed up.

The filmmakers had to beg the studio for more money to create the CGI sea monster

Although Waterworld takes place pretty much entirely at sea, we don’t see much sea life. Recognising this, the filmmakers decided during production that they needed to add an appearance from a CGI sea monster. However, back in the mid-90s CGI was still a fairly new technology, and very expensive to produce.

The filmmakers had to request more money from studio Universal in order to add the sea monster sequence. This was quite an ask, given that Waterworld was already costing far more than originally expected. Unsurprisingly, the studio were initially unwilling to put up the extra cash for one SFX sequence, but eventually they agreed.

The set was so hazardous that on-set medics treated 40 to 50 members of the cast and crew every day

Shooting at sea day-in day-out took its toll physically on the Waterworld cast and crew. The on-set medics were kept busy, with a reported 40 to 50 people coming through their doors on a daily basis. Seasickness was commonplace, from the extras all the way up to director Kevin Reynolds and actress Jeanne Tripplehorn.

Reflecting on this unpleasant aspect of the experience, Tripplehorn recalls, “I threw up, but not in front of anybody.” It was rougher for the extras and low-level crew members, who had less creature comforts available. Extra Sonny LaRosa was one among those who wound up quitting the production after a while, noting they were “tripping over cables” all the time.

A 112-foot model of the ship was built at an airport scrapyard

Waterworld posits that humanity has survived by repurposing whatever remnants of rusted-over ships and oil platforms they could find. It seems a bit ironic, then, that in fact these sets were built from scratch at enormous expense. The Smokers’ base ship, the Exxon Valdez, was constructed at full scale, 112 feet in length, in an airport scrapyard.

The Atoll set, built from 1,000 tonnes of steel, wound up costing the production $5 million. Even the Mariner’s trimaran – ostensibly a more modest, small-scale sea vehicle – came with a hefty price tag attached. Two trimarans were constructed especially for the movie, at a cost of around $500,000 each.

Costner ended up banning tabloid newspapers and magazines from the set

Long before even a single frame of Waterworld had been shown to the public, the film was figuratively drowning in bad press, with reports of the ever-increasing budget and the massive behind-the-scenes difficulties. Tabloid interest was only intensified by rumours of Kevin Costner’s impending divorce.

The press wasted no opportunity to pro-actively roast Waterworld, dubbing it ‘Fishtar’ (a play on 1987 mega-flop Ishtar) and ‘Kevin’s Gate’ (a nod to the similarly troubled 1980 film Heaven’s Gate). Costner was not amused, and when he saw cast and crew reading newspapers and magazines containing such reports, he banned these publications from the set.

The film’s original writer envisaged it as a vehicle for Harrison Ford

The title Waterworld is destined to forever be synonymous with the name of its leading man and producer, Kevin Costner. However, Peter Rader has admitted that while he did have one specific actor in mind while writing the script, it wasn’t Costner. The screenwriter told Yahoo! Movies in 2020, “I have to confess I was thinking of Harrison Ford.”

This makes sense, given Rader wrote the script in the 80s when Ford was the biggest star around off the back of Star Wars, Indiana Jones and to a lesser extent Blade Runner. Whether or not Ford was ever an actual possibility for Waterworld is unknown; curiously, this is one instance when there don’t seem to have been reports of any other actors being linked to the film before Costner.

Kevin Costner was on set almost every day of the shoot

It’s not hard to pin a lot of the blame for Waterworld’s downfall on the ego of its star and producer, Kevin Costner. Costner’s heavily hands-on approach and insistence on making his voice heard on all matters is said to have promoted tension on the already troubled set. However, one thing Costner certainly can’t be accused of is failing to take up the slack where work was concerned.

For pretty much the duration of the Waterworld shoot (which, as you may recall, went three months over schedule), Costner was always there. The star and producer says he was on set for 157 days, working six-day weeks at a time. Costner declares, “It’s never bothered me to work hard. I’ve probably worked on some of the longest schedules in movie history.”

The film only made a profit thanks to its popularity overseas

Thanks to negative word of mouth, Waterworld was initially a significant loss for studio Universal. Waterworld wound up costing around $175 million to make, which increases to $235 million taking into account marketing costs. In order to turn a profit, movies generally need to make back at least double their overall budget at the box office.

Waterworld singularly failed to do this at the domestic box office, making only $88 million, hence it was labelled a flop. However, it fared better overseas, bringing home $176 million in other regions outside the US. This, in addition to home video and TV sales, meant that Waterworld did eventually turn a profit.

It was adapted into a novel, a video game and three theme park attractions

As everyone was banking on Waterworld being a massive blockbuster, the marketing push was huge. Tie-in merchandise included a video game released for Super Nintendo, Game Boy, Virtual Boy, and PC. There was also an official novelisation of the screenplay written by Max Allan Collins (later the author of Road to Perdition).

Given the film’s visual spectacle, it was also fitting that tie-in theme park attractions were launched. Live stunt show Waterworld: A Live Sea War Spectacular was introduced at Universal’s resort in Hollywood. Although the movie wasn’t considered a hit, the show proved popular enough to also be launched at Universal’s resorts in Japan, Singapore and China.

It spawned a comic book series

There was never any real possibility of Waterworld getting a sequel. However, the fantastical world introduced in the movie wound up being explored further in a comic book series. 1997 saw the release of Waterworld: Children of Leviathan, a four-issue story following on from the events of the movie.

Published by Acclaim Comics, the limited series again centres on the Mariner. However, the character was given a new look as Kevin Costner would not give permission for his likeness to be used. Acclaim Comics went out of business in the years that followed, so the comic is hard to find in physical form today.

It was nominated for four Golden Raspberry Awards, but the only ‘winner’ was Dennis Hopper

Unsurprisingly given the tsunami of bad press that greeted Waterworld, the film also got the attention of the Golden Raspberry Awards, the satirical anti-Oscars. It landed four Razzie nominations: Worst Picture, Worst Director (for both Reynolds and Costner), Worst Actor for Costner, and Worst Supporting Actor for Dennis Hopper.

Ultimately, the only Razzie which Waterworld was awarded was for Dennis Hopper’s performance (beating competition including Tim Curry in Congo). Perhaps fortunately for Waterworld, it was up against an even more notorious 1995 flop, Showgirls, which claimed the bulk of the awards that fateful night.

The film was nominated for an Academy Award

It’s hard to believe now that Waterworld crashed and burned barely five years after Costner’s Oscar-laden smash hit Dances with Wolves. Unsurprisingly, the widely derided film did not garner a great deal of attention come awards season – yet it was still admired just enough to be nominated for a single Academy Award.

Waterworld was nominated in the Best Sound category at the 68th annual Academy Awards in early 1996. However, sound engineers Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker and Keith A. Wester lost out to Rick Dior, Steve Pederson, Scott Millan and David MacMillan, the sound team behind Apollo 13.

It was the fourth official collaboration between Kevin Costner and Kevin Reynolds

Director Kevin Reynolds and star Kevin Costner first worked together on 1985’s Fandango, when they were both starting out in the movies. Though the film flopped, Reynolds and Costner became friends and continued working together. Reynolds advised Costner and did uncredited work as second unit director on the actor’s 1990 directorial debut Dances with Wolves.

Costner then hired Reynolds to direct him in 1992’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which became a huge hit. Next, Costner co-produced (but did not act in) Reynolds’ 1994 film Rapa-Nui. After Waterworld soured their friendship for many years, Costner and Reynolds didn’t work together again until 2012 TV mini-series Hatfields & McCoys.