‘Yellowstone’ Drama: Breaking Down Kevin Costner’s Legal Dispute With Paramount and Taylor Sheridan
It’s an interesting time to be alive in Hollywood right now. Not only is the industry in the middle of a historic dual strike, with actors and writers refusing to work another day until they are offered a fair deal by the studios, but there are also major signs of major changes coming. What worked five years ago isn’t necessarily guaranteed to be a success now (The Little Mermaid knows what I’m talking about), and there is so much fighting within the industry, most of it out of fear of what the new Hollywood landscape will look like. It’s all about ego and money, and one of the best examples of both items is the ongoing real-life drama between Yellowstone star Kevin Costner and the show’s creator/writer Taylor Sheridan and the network (Paramount).
The waters have been muddy for many months now, with Costner believing his movie-star status gave him privileges over the rest of the cast and even the showrunner — the catalyst being last year, when he decided to go shoot his longtime passion project, Horizon, shortly before Yellowstone was to resume production on its fifth season. Costner was mostly absent in the first half of the season, but things didn’t get better from there. According to reports, the actor didn’t want to spend more than a week shooting for season “5B”, as he is now getting ready to film the Horizon sequel, the second film in a planned four-arc story he’s financing himself. Warner Bros., which paid for a small part of the $100+M budget in exchange for domestic distribution rights, has not yet set a date for the first film. Costner’s litigator, Marty Singer, denied that he was only going to shoot for one week for 5B to Puck News‘ Matt Belloni months ago.
A major battle ensued. Costner said he wouldn’t be shooting a day until he was guaranteed a reduced work schedule so he could prep the new movie and until he was satisfied with his character’s arc. But that happened after years of the cast, crew, and network being tired of the actor’s ego and sense of righteousness, and after Costner decided it was Sheridan and Paramount’s fault for not giving in to his demands, they decided to cancel plans for future seasons and decided to, instead, develop a sequel series with some of the main Yellowstone players returning and led by Matthew McConaughey.
But Costner was not happy with that development. According to a new story by Puck News, both sides of the table have spent the entire summer fighting, with Paramount Network having Sheridan’s back, an unsurprising move given how much they’ve invested in the showrunner. Costner announced earlier this month at a court hearing in his divorce that he’d be suing, as he’s owed $12 million for 5B since Paramount exited the negotiations for his return. After that happened, Costner’s producing partner Rod Lake set up a meeting in New York with Paramount Media Networks and MTV Entertainment Studios COO Keyes Hill-Edgar: the actor wanted to be back for 5B, and potentially even the next two seasons, which had been once planned. Why? Well, to properly wrap up the character, fulfill the fans’ wishes (sure…), and, of course, to help promote the first Horizon movie. (Interestingly enough, Costern’s last Yellowstone renewal included a “moral death” clause that forbids Sheridan from killing off John Dutton in a way that may be embarrassing for the actor or the family.)
Following that encounter, Sheridan and Costner got on a phone call together, but it didn’t last long before it became a screaming match. Scripts for 5B that were completed before the WGA strike on May 2 didn’t include John Dutton, as Sheridan assumed Costner would not be back — he was open to scrapping them and giving John Dutton his own arc. Here are Costner’s demands, though (per Puck News): more money, less time on set, and the right to “review, approve, and potentially veto” every new script by Sheridan. Obviously, that was a non-starter for Sheridan, and Paramount also walked out shortly after.
Costner revealed in his divorce hearing that he will likely be suing over $12M he’s supposedly owed by Paramount — but because he already got paid for the second half of the fifth season, Matt Belloni at Puck speculates he’s likely referring to seasons 6 and potentially even 7, which were covered under his latest renewal. By killing his character off, Costner argues that Paramount is in breach of contract, in addition to potentially violating the aforementioned “moral death” clause.
So what’s next for Yellowstone? The most likely scenario right now is that Kevin Costner will not be returning, and that the promotion for Horizon he was hoping to get out of a return in 5B will actually be coming from trade headlines regarding litigation and lawsuits. Will there be such a thing as bad publicity in this case? The cast and crew are also ready to move on. Moves on pre-production are apparently already underway since Sheridan was able to knock out a lot of the scripting before May 2, and by the time they wrap, McConaughey is already in line to headline the next series, with at least part of the cast expected to come back.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
