Taylor Sheridan has built a television empire by carving out his own path. However, the creator of Landman is now facing a lawsuit claiming that the series that started it all—Yellowstone—was developed using ideas from another writer’s rejected TV pitch.
According to Variety, writer Lauren J. Salkin filed a copyright infringement lawsuit on Friday, August 21, accusing Sheridan of borrowing elements from her proposed Western drama, Sovereign Nation, and incorporating them into the creation of Yellowstone. 101 Studios, Paramount, and Elevate Entertainment, Sheridan’s management company, are also listed as defendants in the case. Representatives for the defendants had not responded to the outlet’s requests for comment.
Salkin alleges that she submitted Sovereign Nation to Elevate in 2016 and received a rejection message stating, “Taylor thanks you very much for your interest. Unfortunately, he’s unavailable for TV projects.”
The lawsuit directly disputes that explanation.
“Sheridan, however, was not ‘unavailable for TV projects,’” the complaint states. “Instead, he and others used Salkin’s copyrighted works to develop Yellowstone.”
According to the suit, Paramount approved Yellowstone just months after Salkin’s rejection, with the series eventually debuting in June 2018.
Salkin’s claims go beyond the fact that both projects fall within the modern Western genre. Her complaint highlights what she describes as “specific expressive choices” shared between the two works, including a tribal casino serving as a hub of political influence, disputes over development outside reservation borders, trust land, 99-year leases, and repeated themes surrounding plans for territorial expansion.
The lawsuit also references two actors connected to both projects. Salkin claims her Sovereign Nation pitch included Danny Huston and Gil Birmingham, who later became key cast members on Yellowstone. Birmingham portrayed tribal chairman Thomas Rainwater, while Huston played developer Dan Jenkins.
“When the works are objectively compared, the same coordinated design repeatedly appears,” the lawsuit argues, claiming the similarities “are not merely convergences of a shared genre.”
The allegations come as Sheridan has become increasingly outspoken about the Hollywood industry he once struggled to enter. Billy Bob Thornton, who stars as Tommy Norris on Landman, recently told Town & Country that “Hollywood wasn’t nice to Taylor,” adding that Sheridan eventually found a home within Texas’ ranching community because “he’s not phoning it in.”
Sheridan has also spoken about his difficult journey before finding success. Before Yellowstone, he spent years acting and has revealed that he was homeless twice, including a six-month period when he lived out of his car. After his role on Sons of Anarchy, he turned his focus toward screenwriting and later earned praise for films such as Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River.
Yellowstone completely changed his career trajectory. The Kevin Costner-led series expanded into multiple spin-offs and helped Sheridan build a growing television portfolio that now includes Landman, Tulsa King, Lioness, Mayor of Kingstown, and The Madison.
Sheridan has also been open about his dislike of excessive Hollywood interference. “This is not a democracy. There’s no committee,” he said during a June appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast, explaining his approach to creating television.
