Costner’s crackers…

Field Of Dreams (1989) After impressing in The Untouchables, No Way Out and Bull Durham (’87-’88), Costner became a Hollywood leading man with this moving fantasy-drama about an Iowa farmer who hears a voice instructing him to build a baseball diamond in his cornfields… with spirited results. “Field Of Dreams is our generation’s It’s A Wonderful Life,” says Costner.

Dances With Wolves (1990) Kev starred as Lt. John Dunbar in his directorial debut, an epic Civil War western. It won seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Director – beating out Scorsese’s GoodFellas in the process. “Every studio passed on it,” Costner remembers. “My movies have a tendency to be long, and people want them shorter. But you have to have a style.” Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (1991) Costner’s adventure might be cartoonish and boast accents from the land of WTF, but it’s also fun, exhilarating and comes with a great boo-hiss villain (Alan Rickman). Our man must have been doing something right: RHPOT took $390m and put Bryan Adams’ theme tune at the top of the UK charts for 16 weeks.

JFK (1991) Oliver Stone’s three-hour thriller needed a calm presence to anchor its barrage of technique and conspiracy theories – step forward Costner as New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison. “I received a lot of strange mail over doing the part,” Costner says. “But I decided long ago that I would never conduct my career out of fear. I identified with the [ film’s] emotional truth.”

Man Of Steel (2013) After 16 up-and-down years post- The Postman (1997), Costner scored a comeback with TV miniseries Hatfields & McCoys and big-screen thriller Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. But it was his soulful turn as Supes’ Earth-dad that made his career soar. Kev wasn’t a fan of Superman as a kid, mind: “I tried to fly and I fell off the couch,” he winces.