Costner Needs Some ‘Dragonfly’ Buzz

It’s been a long time between hits for Kevin Costner, who goes back to the plate once again on Friday in the supernatural thriller “Dragonfly.” It’s a change of pace for Costner and for its director, Tom Shadyac, who’s best known for directing such comedies as “Ace Ventura” and “The Nutty Professor.”

In “Dragonfly,” a Universal Pictures film, Costner portrays a doctor who believes that his deceased wife is trying to communicate with him using the sign of a dragonfly and through near-death experiences of his patients.

The last time the 47-year-old actor teamed with Universal was in 1999 for the baseball drama “For Love of the Game,” and the results were somewhat explosive. Costner got upset over several lines of humorous, obscenity-laced dialogue that were trimmed or altered so that the film could receive a PG-13 rating. His outburst in the press infuriated Universal, which then publicly backed director Sam Raimi over the actor.

Coming after last year’s “3,000 Miles to Graceland,” a commercial and critical flop, Costner could use even a moderate hit.

“About a decade ago, he was one of the biggest A-list stars in Hollywood,” said Gitesh Pan- dya, editor of Boxofficeguru.com. “He could not do wrong.” But, as Pandya notes: “He really needs to pick the right projects with the right directors and the right scripts. I wouldn’t toss him aside--his agent just needs to find him the right role.”

Compiled by Times staff writers