Kevin Costner Sets Record Straight on YELLOWSTONE Issues Putting the Blame on "Untruthful" Producers
Kevin Costner has offered a little more insight into what is going on with Yellowstone, and why there’s been so much drama surrounding his involvement and commitment to the series.
As you know, there was a big contract dispute, which eventually led to Costner being let go from the series, and while reports have placed the blame on Costner, the actor has a very different story of what happened and he called the producers and reporting on the behind the scenes drama “untruthful.”
Costner explained: “Well, I haven't felt good about it the last year, what with the way they've talked about it. It wasn't truthful. So now I'm talking about a little bit about what the real truth of it was."
The actor went on to share that the issue he had with the whole thing was how Paramount and Yellowstone's producers kept changing their plans for the show's run and its conclusion.
He explained: "I made a contract for seasons five, six and seven. In February, after a two-or three-month negotiation, they made another contract.”
He added: “They wanted to redo that one, and instead of seasons six and seven, it was 5A and 5B, and maybe we'll do six. They weren't able to make those.”
Costner went on to say: “Horizon was set in the middle, but Yellowstone was first position. I fit [Horizon] into the gaps. They just kept moving their gaps."
So, all of these issues and disputes were due to poor management on the part of the studio and the producers. Costner was obviously open to returning and finishing things out, but everyone else kept making that difficult to do.
Costner previously said that he was trying to firm up plans for his return, and talked about his hope for coming back saying: “I’d like to be able to do it but we haven’t been able to.”
He continued: “I thought I was going to make seven [seasons] but right now we’re at five. So how it works out — I hope it does — but they’ve got a lot of different shows going on. Maybe it will. Maybe this will circle back to me. If it does and I feel really comfortable with [it], I’d love to do it.”
It was previously reported that Costner had wanted to reduce his time on set to work on his upcoming film saga Horizon, the first chapter of which is out in June.
In September, he threatened to sue producers over lost salary as a result of being released from the series, saying, “I couldn’t help them any more. We tried to negotiate, they offered me less money than previous seasons, there were issues with the creative.”
I hope that Costner does come back, ending the series without him seems like a silly decision, especially since producers brought in on themselves.
Source: Deadline