Kevin Costner will star in and co-write 'Headhunters'

Kevin Costner will star in and co-write 'Headhunters'.

The 69-year-old actor will play a washed up American expat with a mysterious past in 'Missing' director of photography Steven Holleran's directorial debut, and his own Territory Pictures will also produce alongside Stone Village Films.

The movie sees Kevin's character living in Bali, where he recruits a group of surfers to head to an uncharted island in search of the perfect wave - but it turns out to be the home of an ancient tribe of headhunters who are determined to protect their land at all costs.

'Station Eleven' star Daniel Zovatto will also star in the film.

The movie marks Kevin's first film since he finished work on the first two parts of his passion project, 'Horizon: An American Saga'.

The first part of the story had a world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and grossed $38.2 million at the global box office, while the seconded debuted at Venice Film Festival, but Warner Bros. pulled the plug on its planned August theatrical release.

Speaking at Venice, Kevin admitted: “I don’t know how I’m gonna make [Part 3] right now, but I’m gonna make it.”

He also told Deadline he had spent $98 million on the first three films and when he makes a fourth, "“it will push me over $100 million.”

The 'Dances with Wolves' star recently admitted he doesn't think of 'Horizon: An American Saga' as a passion project.

He told AARP: "Calling it that actually minimises it.

"I've been passionate about a lot of things that I've done. This is a good thing about America. People came west. It's part of our legacy. I just believed in it so much that I put my money into it, but I've had that belief about everything in my life."

The first 'Horizon' movie included precise historical information and Kevin used books to improve his knowledge about the time period.

The 'Tin Cup' actor said: "I just read books. I'm thrilled by details and the survival instinct that people displayed on the frontier. I love the spontaneity and the mindset of engineers in the era.

"Movie viewers are usually rushing towards the gunfight. But somebody had to plot these towns out. Somebody had to go out there with a shovel. Wheels broke down.

"And the way pioneers solved many problems elegantly, just ingeniously, I always like reading about that. And then I think, 'Can I fashion a story, a dialogue, around those facts?'"