Taylor Sheridan is being sued by television writer Lauren J. Salkin, who claims he stole her idea and turned it into his hit show Yellowstone.
Salkin filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Sheridan, 56, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on Friday. The complaint names Sheridan, his management company Elevate Entertainment, Paramount and NBCUniversal as defendants, alongside several others.
Salkin alleges she presented a pilot, concept, storylines and pitch deck for a show called Sovereign Nation to Sheridan's representatives at Elevate Entertainment in late 2016 and early 2017. She describes the project in the complaint, obtained and reviewed by the Daily Mail, as a "dramatic television series centered on tribal governance, casino-driven economic power, and a modern war over land and development."
Salkin's lead attorney, Paul B. Lackey, said in a statement to the Daily Mail on Saturday that the case was "a classic David versus Goliath situation." He said Salkin "spent years putting together the specific and multi-layered framework for a story that has become the biggest streaming success of all time," and had "watched the vast commercial success of this story that was stolen from her and decided that enough was enough." He added that her team would "do everything in our power to get her justice."
The Daily Mail has reached out to representatives for Sheridan, Elevate Entertainment, NBCUniversal and Paramount for comment.
The rejection and the timeline
Salkin alleges that on February 1, 2017, Elevate Entertainment informed her that Sheridan had passed on her idea. According to the lawsuit, the correspondence stated: "Taylor thanks you very much for your interest. Unfortunately, he's unavailable for TV projects."
The complaint further alleges that Paramount greenlit Yellowstone within months of rejecting her pitch. Yellowstone, which starred Kevin Costner as Montana rancher John Dutton, premiered on Paramount Network in 2018 and ran until 2024, becoming one of the most-watched dramas on cable television.
In her complaint, Salkin highlights plot devices, character functions and story mechanisms in Yellowstone that she claims parallel those in Sovereign Nation. She also alleges that Yellowstone cast several actors she had proposed for key roles in her own series.
The HBO claim
Salkin claims a senior creative executive at HBO who reviewed both her materials for Sovereign Nation and Sheridan's materials for Yellowstone later told her he recognized similarities between the two projects. According to the complaint, the executive said he immediately "terminated Sheridan's project at HBO for that reason."
The complaint notes that the Yellowstone franchise, which has expanded into spinoffs including 1883, 1923, Marshals and Dutton Ranch, "has generated billions of dollars," while Salkin "has received nothing."
No total damages figure is listed in the filing, but Salkin is seeking damages and profits related to the alleged copyright infringement, along with an injunction to stop the defendants from continuing to use her copyrighted material.
6666 spinoff scrapped
The lawsuit comes just days after Sheridan shocked fans by revealing that the prospective Yellowstone spinoff 6666 has been scrapped. The show was first announced in 2021.
In Yellowstone, Jefferson White's character Jimmy Hurdstrom leaves the show's Montana setting to work on the real 6666 Ranch in Texas. Sheridan acquired the property after its previous owner's death, which sparked speculation that a new series could be set there.
He has now confirmed the project will not go ahead because he does not want to "trivialize" the lives of the real people he employs on the ranch. Speaking on the podcast Rodeo Time, Sheridan said, "I would never fictionalize that ranch," adding that "people thought that that was gonna be," but "that's never gonna happen."
