Taylor Sheridan has been accused of stealing the idea for Yellowstone from a writer’s 2016 pitch, according to a new copyright infringement lawsuit. In the complaint, obtained by The Independent, Lauren J. Salkin alleges that her rejected pitch bore a number of striking similarities to Sheridan’s hit neo-Western drama. 101 Studios, Paramount Global and NBCUniversal are also named as defendants in the suit.
The Independent has contacted representatives for Sheridan and those companies for comment. In the complaint, Salkin’s lawyers claim she spent more than a decade developing a TV series named Sovereign Nation, which centered on “tribal governance, casino-driven economic power, and a modern war over land and development.” Salkin claims she submitted Sovereign Nation to Taylor Sheridan’s representatives in late 2016 and received a rejection in February 2017. Unfortunately, he’s unavailable for TV projects,” read the response from his representatives, according to the suit.
Months later, Yellowstone was greenlit by Paramount and its first episode aired on June 20, 2018. Yellowstone starred Kevin Costner as ranch patriarch John Dutton and followed his family’s fight to protect their sprawling Montana ranch from developers, Native American tribes and rival interests seeking to seize control of their land. Yellowstone ran for five wildly successful seasons from 2018 to 2024, shattering cable viewing records and spawning an expansive TV franchise.
Salkin’s lawyers claim the show “included specific expressive choices already embodied” in Sovereign Nation. New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. They allegedly included: “A tribal casino functioning as the institutional center of political and development power; a signature confrontation staged in the tribal chairman’s casino office over expansion beyond reservation boundaries; the use of trust land, the absence of zoning restrictions, and a 99-year lease structure as the concrete mechanism for that expansion; and recurring master-plan imagery deployed to dramatize the struggle for territorial control.” Furthermore, Salkin’s lawyers also claim that she suggested actors Danny Huston and Gil Birmingham in her pitch deck. Both were later cast in Yellowstone and played “materially parallel structural roles,” they allege: “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.” Sheridan had previously cast Birmingham in his 2017 film Wind River, however.
The suit goes on to claim that a senior, unnamed HBO TV executive who had reviewed materials for Sovereign Nation later told her he recognized similarities in Yellowstone and rejected Sheridan’s show for that reason. Taken together with access and timing, they support a strong inference of copying.” Salkin is seeking damages and profits tied to alleged copyright infringement and injunctive relief preventing future infringement. Lackey told The Hollywood Reporter.
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