Writer Lauren J. Salkin has filed a lawsuit against Taylor Sheridan, claiming he stole the concept for the hit series “Yellowstone” from a pitch she made in 2016. The lawsuit, filed on Friday, also names 101 Studios, Paramount, and Elevate Entertainment as defendants.
Representatives for Sheridan, 101 Studios, Paramount, and Elevate Entertainment did not provide comments to Variety at the time of request.
According to court documents obtained by Variety, Salkin claims she presented her Western drama, “Sovereign Nation,” to Sheridan’s management company, Elevate Entertainment, in 2016. She was reportedly informed that Sheridan was unavailable for TV projects. However, Salkin alleges that “Yellowstone” received approval from Paramount just months after her pitch was declined.
The lawsuit asserts that Sheridan was, in fact, available for TV projects and that he, along with others, used Salkin’s copyrighted material to create “Yellowstone.” The first episode of “Yellowstone” aired on June 20, 2018, on the Paramount Network.
Salkin’s lawsuit highlights several specific elements from “Sovereign Nation” that she claims were incorporated into “Yellowstone.” These include a tribal casino serving as a political and developmental hub, a pivotal confrontation scene in the tribal chairman’s casino office over expansion beyond reservation borders, the use of trust land and a 99-year lease structure for expansion, and recurring imagery of master plans illustrating the territorial struggle.
Moreover, Salkin’s legal team points out that she had suggested Danny Huston and Gil Birmingham for roles in “Sovereign Nation” during her pitch. These actors were later cast in “Yellowstone,” playing roles that mirrored her proposed characters: Birmingham as the tribal leader with casino-centered authority and Huston as the external development power broker.
The lawsuit concludes that when comparing the two works, a consistent design emerges: casino-centered political structures, unique land-development mechanisms driving conflict, parallel scenes fulfilling similar dramatic purposes, and the same actors in comparable roles. Salkin argues these similarities, combined with her access and the timing of events, strongly suggest copying rather than coincidental similarity within the same genre.
