Not many fans are aware of the treacherous ongoing behind the curtains of Hollywood’s glamorous lifestyle. But the little that does get out becomes colored by rumors, allegations, and whatnot to make the news of the hour seem more saucy. Kevin Costner, for one, has been the hottest topic around for the past year following his exit from Yellowstone, the biggest TV show of the modern era.
With Academy Award-nominated writer-director Taylor Sheridan at the fulcrum of Paramount’s largest haul of creative outflow, Costner enjoyed seven whole years of resurrected glory that seems accessible to only a rare handful of A-listers from the ’80s and ’90s. But even with all the bells and whistles that come with being the star of Yellowstone, there were a few shortcomings on Sheridan’s part that seemed too risky to ignore.
Kevin Costner Shields Demi Moore From Taylor Sheridan
After experiencing a working relationship with Taylor Sheridan first-hand for seven long and bumpy years, Kevin Costner was informed enough to make his close friend of 40+ years, Demi Moore aware of the shortcomings of starring in one of Sheridan’s projects. But some things are easier said than done, especially in the cutthroat world of the entertainment industry with no shortage of talent.
Hollywood has always been a difficult industry that leaves most actors with formidable mental and physical tolerance and Demi Moore, a star of the 80s, could hardly be intimidated by the newly appointed king of western television, Taylor Sheridan. Moreover, given the lack of opportunities for actresses her age, the offer to not only appear but lead a Sheridan-verse show seemed too good to pass up.
In an interview with National Inquirer [via Geo News], an insider revealed the details of Kevin Costner’s attempts to protect Moore from Sheridan.
[Kevin Costner] told Demi that Taylor will court you but once he has you under his control, it’s game over. You’re just another actor who can be replaced. Demi respects Kevin’s opinion. But she doesn’t get big film offers any longer. Demi figures if she’s going to be doing TV, she might as well be working with the hottest producer around!
The offer in question was to star as the female lead in the series Landman which chronicles “a modern-day tale of fortune-seeking in the world of West Texas oil rigs” [according to IMDb]. Now, as a month passes in the wake of the show’s filming, Moore updates the status of Landman in an interview with Deadline saying:
It’s a very interesting world in the boomtown of Fort Worth, Texas. It’s kind of this subculture that we haven’t seen before, which is what I think Taylor does so well. I play an oil tycoon’s wife… lots of nice clothes. The substance of it is really exploring the issues around oil, petroleum, on all sides…and then of course, as Taylor does so well, there’s delicious drama within and family dynamics.
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Unlike other Sheridan creations, Landman is adapted from a podcast Boomtown that will tell an “upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires that are fueling a boom so big it’s reshaping our climate, our economy, and our geopolitics.” The show is slated to premiere in 2025.
The Slow Degradation of Kevin Costner & Taylor Sheridan
Since the premiere of Yellowstone in 2018 and the subsequent years that followed, Kevin Costner has had an all-access pass in getting to know the man behind the cowboy genius, Taylor Sheridan. In these years, Costner came across a reality that did not sit well with him, ultimately leading to his public clash with Sheridan and eventual exit from his well-paid cushy job at Yellowstone in 2023.
In the months that followed, rumors have occupied the void left behind by Costner’s non-answers and Sheridan’s silence. However, it always boiled down to the same basic reasons: salary negotiations, clashes in the filming schedules, or creative differences. In Kevin Costner’s case, the reality seemed to be more complicated than that.
After signing on to Yellowstone at Paramount as Taylor Sheridan’s first (and only) choice as the Dutton family patriarch, his single-season contract expanded to three, then five, and then seven until the studio came up with other plans for the director himself. While Sheridan busied himself with three other parallelly running projects at the network to keep the execs happy and their profits surging, Costner waited for 14 long months – time that would otherwise have been devoted to fulfilling his 40-year-old passion project, Horizon: An American Saga.
With no end in sight and no assurance from Sheridan to stick to his promised schedule, Kevin Costner had no choice but to quit Yellowstone halfway through filming Season 5. Paramount in return canceled Seasons 6 and 7 as the director is now tasked with closing his story’s arc in the second half of Season 5, with the remaining narrative to be continued later with spin-off shows.