A screenwriter claims her idea for what became the TV series 'Yellowstone' was stolen

0:00One of the biggest television dramas at the moment is not happening on screen, but is making its way to a courthouse in California. A screenwriter says her idea for what became the hit TV series Yellowstone was stolen. She is suing a major TV producer, Taylor Sheridan, for copyright infringement. As NPR's Madelite Del Barco reports, while these cases are often thrown out, this time the screenwriter might win. Yellowstone is a modern-day Western drama set in Montana. It stars Kevin Costner as John Dutton, the patriarch of a cattle ranching family. It's the one constant in life. It builds something worth having someone's gonna try and take it. Throughout the series, the Dutton family faces off against others who want the land, including a wealthy developer played by actor Danny Houston. How much do the Yellowstone is worth? I'm gonna be the last person who's gonna want to take it. TV writer Lauren J. Salkin says Taylor Sheridan in his company ripped off her ideas for the series, including the casting of Houston and Gail Birmingham,

1:02who played a tribal chief hoping to develop a casino. Any evidence that your family ever existed will be removed from the property. It'll look like it used to when it was ours. In her lawsuit, Salkin claims that she submitted a pilot script and other materials to Sheridan's company in 2016 and 2017. She says the script she worked on for many years titled Sovereign Nation had similar elements to what became Yellowstone the following year. Almost every successful show, every successful movie has a claim like this, and about 95% of them are total BS. Jeffrey Schneider is executive director at the University of Southern California Center for Sports, Entertainment, Media and Technology Law. He previously represented Disney, Paramount, Universal and other studios. It happens all the time. People write things that are strikingly similar to each other the person who feels aggrieved says there's no other explanation for this other than they must have seen my work install in it. Therefore, I'm going to sue them.

2:03That's what happened in 2005. What is the Matrix? Writer Sophia Stewart told NPR she was in the audience for the Matrix. When I go to the movies and look at the pilot screen, I said oh my god, I wrote this and I'm like the next scene. I wrote this. Stewart also claimed she came up with a film that turned into the Terminator, but she lost her copyright infringement lawsuits. So of many other writers, it turns out that copyright law does not protect ideas only expressions of ideas, things like dialogue, mood, pace and setting. In 1956, a screenwriter lost a case against director Billy Wilder, but Schneider says it did set a legal precedent in the film industry that an idea pitch can form an implied contract. Schneider says that's what happened in another landmark case over the poker film, Rounders. Okay, that's 20 dollars. Good. Okay. Screenwriter Jeffrey Allen Grasso sued Miramax for plagiarism, alleging Rounders was based on his screenplay.

3:04Even though that case was dismissed, his attorney John Marter told NPR in 2006 that courts agreed that Grasso had an implied contract. Tell you, the truth is if you communicate an idea, even an idea that's not, you know, it doesn't have to be novel, you don't have to be original. As long as you communicate it to somebody who wants to hear it, and they want to hear it for the purpose of buying it, and they use it. Fast forward to Lauren Salkin's case, long before Yellowstone was greenlit for production, she registered her script with a writer's guild of America. A protection USC Schneider says it's like a copyright. He notes that Salkin is alleging details that are too similar to be coincidences. So it really will come down to, did Taylor Sheridan's company actually get this script, and did they have access to read it, and did the people who had access to it have anything to do with the writing of the subsequent show that would have to be proven. And then the second thing that would have to be proven is substantial similarity from a copyright perspective. Taylor Sheridan and his company did not respond to NPR's request for comments.

4:07Salkin is asking for a jury trial. Mandelita Barco, NPR News, Los Angeles. Professor