Chris Hemsworth failed to persuade Kevin Costner to hand over movie role

Chris Hemsworth spent an hour on the phone to Kevin Costner in a bid to convince him to hand over a movie part he really wanted.

The 40-year-old 'Thor' star has confessed he fell in love with a role in a film which Costner plans to direct and star in, so he attempted to persuade the veteran screen star to cast him instead - but his mission failed and Costner decided to keep the part for himself.

Hemsworth told 'Entertainment Tonight': "There was a movie, a script that I’d read and loved and was like, ‘I want to get that,’ and then someone said, ‘Kevin Costner has that [role]'.

"I’d love [to have] him as a director. I was like, ‘Goddamnit!’ [I spent] an hour the other day trying to convince him, and he was like, ‘I’m doing it, kid.’ Didn’t work. I didn’t get the part."

Hemsworth went on to insist playing a "horse wrangler" was perfect for him. He added: "My wife read [the script] and loves horses. We have 10 or 11 horses back home, and so she’s like, ‘You’ve got to do this'."

However, Costner, 69, is adamant he wants to do it himself while he's still "young enough" to play the role.

He told the outlet: "It’s a love story, but as long as I’m still young enough to play it, I’ll play it. Chris will have to wait his turn. [Hemsworth is] so handsome, and he’s so good.

"He’s going to have to go find his [own] love story. [But] I’m glad he likes this one. If I reach a moment where I [don’t] think I could do that, I would [reach out]. He’s certainly one of our great leading men right now."

No further details about the film have been revealed, but it's not believed to be a part of Costner's epic Western film 'Horizon'.

He has already filmed the first two parts of 'Horizon', which land in cinemas in July and August, and he plans to make two more movies in the series if the first two are a success.