Kevin Costner: Sheridan Might Have ‘Borrowed’ Writing from His New Movie for Yellowstone

The past year and a half has been one big neverending drama for the Yellowstone community. Taylor Sheridan and Kevin Costner ’s back-and-forth has already lasted far longer than it should have, and it’s hard to deny the devastating effect it had on the iconic show — but apparently, there’s more to unpack between the showrunner and his former lead star.

Costner Points Out Peculiar Similarities

During his recent interview with IndieWire, Kevin Costner touched upon the sensitive subject of potential creative…similarities between his brand new Horizon: An American Saga and Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone where the actor previously starred. Costner waved off the idea that he decided to create a better Yellowstone, but pointed out a different and much more obvious similarity.

The Western star noted that when Sheridan was searching for writers for his Yellowstone prequel 1883, he sent him the Horizon script for inspiration. As a result, both 1883 and Horizon turned out to be wagon train stories following brave settlers striving to reach new frontiers to settle down. What a coincidence, eh?

Costner Doesn’t Throw Real Accusations

Despite there obviously being, say, similarities between 1883 and Horizon which, according to Kevin Costner, appeared after Taylor Sheridan reviewed his script, the actor isn’t eager to throw any accusations around. His relationship with Sheridan might have been troubled lately, but he’s not willing to sink as low as to accuse him.

“I don’t know if there’s any duplications there. Whether [Taylor] ‘borrowed’ something, only he’d have to admit to it,” Costner said.

It’s not the first time that Taylor Sheridan is implied to have “borrowed” ideas for Yellowstone from other Westerns. One of those times, it even was about another Kevin Costner-led project, Dances with Wolves — but ultimately, we don’t think there’s much reason behind such implications, and we have a good reason to.

The Western genre has always been oversaturated, with countless movies, TV shows, books, video games, and other stories set in that relatively small period of time. Of course, they’ll overlap at times; and of course, creators often draw inspiration from each other. There’s nothing criminal about that, is it?

Source: IndieWire