Taylor Sheridan accused of stealing ‘Yellowstone’ from 2016 pitch in copyright lawsuit

Taylor Sheridan has been accused of stealing Yellowstone from a pitch surfacing a decade ago as part of a copyright suit. The drama series originally ran between 2018 and 2024, and focuses on the Dutton family and their ranch in Montana, notably conflicts around land. Sheridan created the Paramount show alongside John Linson, though Sheridan has been sued alongside the studio, 101 Studios and Elevate Entertainment by writer Lauren J. Salkin. The suit claims that she pitched her own show Sovereign Nation to Sheridan’s company Elevate in 2016, though received the response: “Taylor thanks you very much for your interest. Unfortunately, he’s unavailable for TV projects” (via Variety). According to the suit, Paramount then greenlit Yellowstone “within months” of the pitch, the documents adding: “Sheridan, however, was not ‘unavailable for TV projects’. Instead, he and others used Salkin’s copyrighted works to develop Yellowstone.” Among the “specific expressive choices” that were allegedly lifted from Salkin’s pitch were “a tribal casino functioning as the institutional center of political and development power” and “a signature confrontation staged in the tribal chairman’s casino offic...