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One 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 Mandalit del Barco reports, while these cases are often thrown out, this time, the screenwriter might win.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: "Yellowstone" is a modern-day Western drama set in Montana. It stars Kevin Costner as John Dutton, the patriarch of a cattle ranching family.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "YELLOWSTONE")
KEVIN COSTNER: (As John Dutton) It's the one constant in life. You build something worth having, someone's going to try and take it.
DEL BARCO: Throughout the series, the Dutton family faces off against others who want the land, including a wealthy developer played by actor Danny Houston.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "YELLOWSTONE")
DANNY HUSTON: (As Dan Jenkins) Do you know how much the Yellowstone is worth? You think I'm going to be the last person who's going to want to take it?
DEL BARCO: TV writer Lauren J. Salkin says Taylor Sheridan and his company ripped off her ideas for the series, including the casting of Huston and Gil Birmingham, who played a tribal chief hoping to develop a casino.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "YELLOWSTONE")
GIL BIRMINGHAM: (As Chief Thomas Rainwater) Any evidence that your family ever existed will be removed from the property. It'll looks like it used to, when it was ours.
DEL BARCO: In her lawsuit, Salkin claims that she submitted a pilot script and other materials to Sheridan's company in 2016 and '17. She says the script she worked on for many years, titled "Sovereign Nation," had similar elements to what became "Yellowstone" the following year.
JEFFREY SCHNEIDER: Almost every successful show, every successful movie has a claim like this, and about 95% of them are total BS.
DEL BARCO: 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.
SCHNEIDER: 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 and stolen it. Therefore, I'm going to sue them.
DEL BARCO: That's what happened in 2005.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE MATRIX")
KEANU REEVES: (As Neo) What is the Matrix?
DEL BARCO: Writer Sophia Stewart told NPR she was in the audience for "The Matrix."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
SOPHIA STEWART: When I go to the movies, and I'm looking upon the screen, I said, oh, my God, I wrote this. And I'm like, the next scene, I wrote this.
DEL BARCO: Stewart also claimed she came up with a film that turned into "The Terminator," but she lost her copyright infringement lawsuits. So have 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."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ROUNDERS")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) OK, I raise. I mean, call - call.
(SOUNDBITE OF POKER CHIPS CLINKING)
MATT DAMON: (As Mike McDermott) What's the limit here?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Big bet's $20.
DAMON: (As Mike McDermott) OK. Good.
DEL BARCO: Screenwriter Jeffrey Allen Grosso sued Miramax for plagiarism, alleging "Rounders" was based on his screenplay. Even though that case was dismissed, his attorney John Marder told NPR in 2006 that courts agreed that Grosso had an implied contract.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
JOHN MARDER: If you communicate an idea, even an idea if it'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, they have to pay for it.
DEL BARCO: Fast-forward to Lauren Salkin's case. Long before "Yellowstone" was greenlit for production, she registered her script with the Writers Guild of America, a protection USC's Schneider says is like a copyright. He notes that Salkin is alleging details that are too similar to be coincidences.
SCHNEIDER: 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.
DEL BARCO: Taylor Sheridan and his company did not respond to NPR's request for comments. Salkin is asking for a jury trial.
Mandalit del Barco, NPR News, Los Angeles.
(SOUNDBITE OF BRIAN TYLER'S "YELLOWSTONE THEME") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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