There was that, but he was also said to have had some conflicts with one of the primary show-runners, Taylor Sheridan, who appears in the show periodically as a Texas rancher, who actually owns a real ranch. Allegations hold that Sheridan has been soaking the production for additional fees (tens of thousands USD per week) with a "Cowboy Camp" for the purpose of training cast and crew on how to be authentic cowboys. Now, this is not so outlandish, as there have been others like Dale Dye and R. Lee Ermey who have held "actor boot camps" to get them into a military soldiering mindset for the various war films they were working on. The bills for said services, however, were likely not quite as high as the Cowboy Camp, I suspect. All that, plus additional fees ($50K per week) on the use of his ranch in filming various scenes, as well as the use of his livestock in said scenes ($25 per head). Sheridan, of course, charges fees for his own appearances in various episodes, and on and on. As Costner was first-line executive producer on the show, I suspect he was none too happy about his show's budget getting dinged for all those extra charges. The Paramount bean counters are probably a bit miffed as well, despite the high ratings and revenue the show has generated --- Probably the only reason certain people weren't fired outright when the money started flowing a little too freely. There was another spinoff planned called "The Four Sixes" for release next year. This is Sheridan's ranch, seen several times in prior seasons of Yellowstone, and I get the impression that, after all this stuff happened with Yellowstone, it will be a long time, if never, before we see this project move to production. Much of this is speculation, as I don't believe anything official has been spoken of outside the scheduling kerfuffle, but there is definitely more to the story than the public has been told. There always is...
It definitely feels like it might be six of one and half a dozen of the other between Sheridan and Costner. I'd read the article about Sheridan billing production for ridiculous amounts. He's in a very powerful position though, he's given them Yellowstone, Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King and the two current YS spinoffs 1883 and 1923. If I remember right the article suggested that after years as a jobbing actor Sheridan was milking his newfound success (relatively) late in his career for all he could. I have a lot of time for Sheridan, Hell or High Water is one of the best films of the 21st Century IMO, and Scicario ain't far behind, but it does feel like he may be something of a dick! Which doesn't let Costner off the hook and I suspect he's being a dick too and this does have the feel of two alphas vying for dominance. On the one hand Yellowstone benefited greatly from Costner's star power, but on the other Yellowstone has clearly revived his career somewhat, hell he won a Golden Globe this year and I'm sure the success of Yellowstone helped him get the funding to make the western epic(s) he's filming. In an ideal world you'd think the two guys would realise they need each other and work things out. Of course in the world of Yellowstone they'd probably beat the shit out of each other as that's how most problems get solved. Who knows when the second half of season 5 of Yellowstone will get made but I hope Costner is involved and that Sheridan can tie most things up.
^^^ Yep, I would agree with all of this, particularly with the two alphas butting horns. Pre-Yellowstone, Costner was considered a fairly solid A-level actor for a very long time, with things like Dances With Wolves and Field of Dreams to bolster his resume, but then he had Waterworld and Postman which were generally accepted as patently horrible, and that's what a lot of people remember. Dragged his reputation down majorly. His career since that time, while still prolific, has been somewhat marred by those two films in particular. Yes, Yellowstone has put him back on the map, but his runaway ego seems to be sabotaging the good will he's developed on that account. With Sheridan, yeah, he literally holds all the cards and, more dangerously, knows how to play them. Costner owes his re-emergence in no small part to Sheridan, much like John Travolta was brought back into epic public view by Quinton Tarantino. That guy was totally written off by the Hollywood establishment until Pulp Fiction reminded people he could act! Costner's ego, however, probably flipped the script in his head at some point, convincing him that Sheridan and Paramount should have been grateful that an actor of his stature would engage in such a production. When you have two such diametrically opposing viewpoints colliding on a daily basis with regard to a highly lucrative IP, I do not envy the mediator whose job it is to work all this shit out before the lawyers get involved... And they will...
One of the articles said they expanded season five to 14 episodes without consulting Costner. That (plus Costner's own planned film) may be why they're having trouble getting him to commit to enough weeks of filming for the second half of the season. I also heard Costner is concerned that they'll screw up his character's ending out of spite, and he wants to see and approve the final scripts before he commits to anything.
Makes sense. Sounds like this is may be one of those messy “everyone’s right/everyone’s wrong” kind of scenarios.
Already canceled, and now disappearing too: DISNEY+ Shows Being Removed Be Our Chef Big Shot Disney Fairy Tale Weddings Earth to Ned Foodtastic Howard It’s a Dog’s Life With Bill Farmer Just Beyond Magic Camp The Making Of Willow The Mighty Ducks The Mysterious Benedict Society The One and Only Ivan Stuntman Timmy Failure Turner & Hooch Willow Wolfgang The World According To Jeff Goldblum HULU Shows Being Removed Best in Dough Best in Snow Dollface Everything’s Trash The Hot Zone Little Demon Love in the Time of Corona Maggie Pistol The Premise The Quest Y: The Last Man
Not to knock those shows but at least they didn't touch the HBO stuff. Getting ride of shows like Westworld and Vinyl and The Brink bugged me.
I really enjoyed Benedict Society, especially the first season. Its plot and even set design reminded me of the 60’s The Prisoner, questioning the ethics of mind control and other interesting sociological and psychological concepts. The characters were well written and acted, especially the kids - the Russian girl, Constance, was my favorite. It was a very thought provoking show, which is probably why it didn’t last. I will miss it greatly.
It could be a lot of people were expecting it to be the Strange Benedict Cumberbatch society and were severely disappointed. But yeah, it was a very fun show. It's a shame that not only are they not making more, but taking it off altogether.
Count me as another person who loved The Mysterious Benedict Society and was really bummed out when it was canceled. This news makes it even worse. But at least we have the books, which I need to read at some point.
I got bad news. Zaslav is sending people door to door to collect the books as well. When he cancels something he means business.
I must respectfully disagree re: The Postman. Now, I'm not saying that it was a great movie or even a particularly good one, just that it's nowhere near as bad as some folks believe.
Disney has walked back its removal of Howard, and is now saying there could be additional changes. (source: Deadline) Pulling Howard right before Pride Month... wow, that was tone deaf.
The new CW head of entertainment has said in the upfronts that any show that was under development and had a pilot ordered by his predecessor will not be going forward - that includes the Powerpuff Girls, the Andy Diggle 'Arrow' spin off, the 'Zorro' reboot, and the 'Riverdale' spin off.
Wow... not that any were jumping at me (especially with Chloe Bennett gone), but feels like that power flex of the new boss, disregardong fans who could promote new shows. Very sad how the Arrowverse (or is that Oliverse?) sputtered out