Paramount’s hit show, “Yellowstone,” is reportedly drawing to a close, and the rumor going around about the reason why is that Kevin Costner had dramatically limited the number of days that he’s willing to be around for filming.
In fact, it was reported that Costner had first limited himself to just 65 days of shooting for the first part of season 5 of the show, but then cut that down to just 50 days. Then, for the second batch of episodes in the season, Costner allegedly refused to appear for more than a week of shooting. According to reports, that frustrated both Sheridan, the director, and other cast members
Costner and his team and now pushing back on those allegations somewhat, calling the claim that he only made one week available for shooting “ridiculous.” That came from his lawyer, Marty Singer, who told Puck News “The idea that Kevin was only willing to work one week on the second half of Season 5 of ‘Yellowstone’ is an absolute lie. It’s ridiculous — and anyone suggesting it shouldn’t be believed for one second. As everyone who knows anything about Kevin is well aware, he is incredibly passionate about the show and has always gone way above and beyond to ensure its success.”
The Daily Caller, adding some context to the squabble and noting what was probably going on, reported that:
The issue, it seems, was more complicated as Season 5 was originally only planned to have 10 episodes, but it was expanded to 16 and arranged to be shot in two portions, according to Puck News. The first window of shooting hit a snag after Costner reportedly contracted COVID-19 after a promotional trip to the Calgary Stampede Rodeo, the outlet stated. Instead of extending the shooting days to make up for lost time, Costner allegedly declared his shooting time elapsed, forcing cast and crew to come back months later to shoot his scenes, Puck News stated.
Those delays and other issues allegedly caused the second half of Season 5 to be pushed back to 2023, with lawyer Howard Kaplan offering a week of dates for shooting in the summer and two days in October or November, according to Puck News.
Costner’s team denies that version of events, saying that the fault lies with Sheridan. According to Costner’s team, the shooting for season five was supposed to be completed in 2022 but Sheridan delayed filming by failing to provide scripts on time and moving the shooting schedule regularly.
Paramount has remained tight lipped about the drama and what’s going on with the show and Costner. When rumors about the show began to swirl, a spokesperson for the network gave a statement to Deadline in which they seemed unwilling to confirm or deny the report, saying:
“We have no news to report. Kevin Costner is a big part of Yellowstone and we hope that’s the case for a long time to come. Thanks to the brilliant mind of Taylor Sheridan, we are always working on franchise expansions of this incredible world he has built. Matthew McConaughey is a phenomenal talent with whom we’d love to partner.”
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