Multi-Oscar winner Kevin Costner says he may take the Paramount series “Yellowstone” to court over the $12 million he is allegedly owed. This is just the latest entry into a months-long dispute between the actor and the production.
“It’s a little disappointing that [it’s the] No. 1 show on television [and] I’m not participating. I’ll probably go to court over it,” Costner said during his divorce hearing. Christine Baumgartner, his wife of 19 years, filed for divorce in May. As a part of the process, Costner’s finances are being looked at, including his earnings from “Yellowstone.”
Costner says he is owed $12 million for the not-yet-filmed second half of season five. But he claims Paramount “walked away” from negotiations. Paramount has yet to comment on this claim.
Currently, “Yellowstone” is on hiatus after the first half of season five aired last year, and no one is really confirming why. Some sources are blaming Coster’s busy schedule since he is also shooting his dream project, the four-part movie saga “Horizon.” While his camp is saying that showrunner Taylor Sheridan is the one taking on too many projects. And Sheridan is pointing to Paramount’s increasing demand for more content for its streaming service. The anwer could also be D. All of The Above, causing the production to stand still. The current WAG and SAG-AFTRA strikes are also contributing.
While the first part of Costner’s new series of films is already finished shooting, “Horizon: An American Saga,” it was apparently done around “Yellowstone.” Once the call was made to do season five in two parts, Costner said he rearranged his production schedule to accommodate that. But when he was ready to begin filming, scripts for the second half of the season weren’t ready.
In May, Paramount surprised everyone by announcing the second half of season five would end the series. Even though Costner claims he wanted to return for a sixth season. “I couldn’t help them any more,” he said. “We tried to negotiate, they offered me less money than previous seasons [and] there were issues with the creative.”
His claims fly in the face of what the production is saying though. Sheridan claims that the actor has requested to work fewer and fewer days on “Yellowstone” for the last few seasons to focus on his movies. Which is frustrating the producers.
“My last conversation with Kevin was that he had this passion project he wanted to direct,” Sheridan said. “He and the network were arguing about when he could be done with Yellowstone. I said, ‘We can certainly work a schedule toward [his preferred exit date],’ which we did.”
There have been ongoing discussions to try to convince Costner to film a few scenes. Simply to wrap up his character, John Dutton, even though the scripts are not yet complete.
“My opinion of Kevin as an actor hasn’t altered,” Sheridan says. “His creation of John Dutton is symbolic and powerful … and I’ve never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn’t work out on the phone. But once lawyers get involved, then people don’t get to talk to each other and start saying things that aren’t true and attempt to shift blame based on how the press or public seem to be reacting. He took a lot of this on the chin and I don’t know that anyone deserves it. His movie seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus. I sure hope [the movie is] worth it — and that it’s a good one.”
“I’m disappointed,” he adds. “It truncates the closure of his character. It doesn’t alter it, but it truncates it.”
Sheridan has also hinted that John Dutton wasn’t intended to stick around until the end of the series. And that the conclusion to “Yellowstone” remains unchanged due to this. But Costner ever being in talks about a sixth season contradicts that. Some sources are even saying he was anticipated to be in the show until the (now defunct) seventh season.
Unfortunately, taking this to court may be the only way to resolve all this back and forth to get some kind of clear answer. We’ll keep you posted on news about the fifth and final season of “Yellowstone” as it becomes available.
