Arizona Daily Star critic Phil Villarreal has reported that Oscar-winning screenwriter Michael Blake (Dances with Wolves) told him earlier today “he’ll collaborate again with Kevin Costner on The One, a romantic tragedy based on a screenplay Blake adapted from his short story.

Costner “will play an outcast from a wealthy family who has waited until middle age to meet the right woman,” Villarreal writes. (What does “waiting” mean? The guy never dates women? Is he into a Lars and the Real Girl type deal?) His holdout pays off when he meets the woman of his dreams, but the love story takes a tragic turn.

“It’s not going to be epic but will be pretty good in its own way, with true sentiment,” Blake says. A happy ending is promised, he adds.

Let me explain something. Happy endings aren’t that important. What matters if that an ending has to feel honestly arrived at and a natural outgrowth of the story. Viewers need to feel that on one level or another justice has been served and that the “right” thing has happened. And that doesn’t necessarily mean “happy.”

Blake hopes/believes that the project, a non-studio thing, will “start shooting soon,” PV writes.