Kevin Costner Says Taylor Sheridan’s ‘1883’ May Have Borrowed From His ‘Horizon’ Script

I'll admit... when I first heard that Yellowstone star Kevin Costner was working on his own western project, I got excited. And then when I heard the description, a post-Civil War era western about American expansion into the west, I thought.... it sounded a lot like Taylor Sheridan's 1883. Of course, the rift between Costner and Sheridan has been well-documented, and Costner won't be appearing in the series finale of Yellowstone, unless they come to some kind of agreement (Costner has stated that his terms were very reasonable). So, while 1883 was a one-and-done prequel series, setting the stage for 1923 and more, and Costner's Horizon is a 4-part movie series, the two projects essentially cover the same material. It would be pretty easy to think that Costner may have borrowed from 1883 in writing his film saga, however he says that it could be the other way around. When asked straight-up if he borrowed from 1883 at all, he said that he actually wrote Horizon first, and Sheridan himself read it... before he wrote 1883. This was back in 2019, during the second season of Yellowstone. According to Indie Wire, Costner says he submitted the Horizon script to Sheridan and company when they were looking for more writers. And let's be clear, Costner isn't accusing Sheridan of stealing any plot lines from him, but if there is any crossover, he essentially says Sheridan would have to confess to that, not him. When asked at the Horizon premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, he said: "I don’t know if there’s any duplications there. Whether he borrowed something, only he’d have to admit to.” Interesting, eh? It also kind of sounds like Costner didn't even watch 1883... We'll have to wait until all 4 parts of Horizon: An American Saga come out to make that call, but in the meantime, I don't think Costner is going to score any more points with Sheridan by revealing that. That being said, Costner has said he remains to open to filming Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2, but admits that they'll most likely film without him. One of his big sticking points was seeing the script, and Sheridan seems to think that is off limits (or hasn't finished it yet). He says: "I know they’ll probably do that without me, I’m open to coming back. But I basically have to see what the scripts are about. But now ‘Horizon’ has my first position.” Yellowstone just started production recently, and is aiming for a November 2024 premiere date, but the show doesn't have a great track record of hitting dates, so it remains to be seen if they're still on track for that. Meanwhile, Costner's Horizon: An American Saga premiered to a massive standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, one that left Costner himself a little teary eyed (he says he didn't cry). However, a number of critic reviews are in and they seem to be pretty unimpressed with the first part of the story. The overarching sentiment seems to indicate that then 3-hour Part 1 just sets the stage for the rest of the saga, without really doing anything of its own. Fair enough, that's kind of how I felt about Dune: Part One, but I also enjoyed that one. And does anyone really care what critics think? When critics overwhelmingly trashed The Terminal List starring Chris Pratt, and fans absolutely loved it, I stopped caring what critics think about anything. Horizon: An American Saga is set to hit theaters on June 28th, and I'll be first in line to see it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYsReoZMj1k&t=4s&pp=ygUVaG9yaXpvbiBhbWVyaWNhbiBzYWdl