Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan has been accused of stealing key ideas of the hit television series in a new lawsuit, Variety reports.
Writer Lauren J. Salkin claimed that Sheridan stole her ideas, with 101 Studios, Paramount and Elevate Entertainment also listed as defendants.
In court documents seen by Variety, Salkin alleged that she pitched a Western-themed drama called Sovereign Nation to Sheridan’s management company, Elevate Entertainment, in 2016. She also claimed to have submitted a pilot script and other materials.
The first episode of Yellowstone aired in 2018, and Salkin claimed the series was greenlit “within months” of her pitch allegedly being rejected.
Salkin’s lawsuit said that the pitch for Sovereign Nation contained “specific expressive changes” that Sheridan allegedly used in Yellowstone.
Said choices included “a tribal casino functioning as the institutional centre of political and development power,” as well as a confrontation in the tribal chairman’s casino office, exploring trust land, zoning restrictions, and more.
The lawsuit also stated that Salkin “proposed” using actors Danny Huston and Gil Birmingham for Sovereign Nation, both of whom featured in Yellowstone.
Salkin alleged that the actors depicted “materially parallel structural roles: Birmingham as the tribal political leader whose authority and development strategy run through the casino, and Huston as the outside development power broker who supplies the political or commercial path for that expansion.”
The lawsuit adds that when the ideas from both series are compared, “the same coordinated design repeatedly appears,” such as casino-centred organisations and political power, land-development mechanisms that propel the plot’s conflict, and the same actors pitched in materially parallel roles.
“These are not merely convergences of a shared genre,” the lawsuit continued. “Taken together with access and timing, they support a strong inference of copying.”
Salkin is suing for copyright infringement and an injunction. She’s also seeking damages, including profits from Yellowstone. At the time of publication, Sheridan hasn’t publicly responded to the lawsuit.
The hit series aired from 2018 to 2024 and featured five seasons. Yellowstone starred Kevin Costner, Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, Cole Hauser, Gil Birmingham, and many others, with Australian actors Jacki Weaver and Finn Little also holding key roles.
Yellowstone inspired multiple spin-off series, including 1883, 1923, Marshals, and Dutton Ranch. Taylor Sheridan also created the crime dramas Mayor of Kingstown and Tulsa King, the espionage thriller Lioness and another drama, Landman.
