‘Yellowstone’: Kevin Costner Files $15 Million Lawsuit Against His Ex-Business Executive

Kevin Costner is suing his former business executive for $15 million. Costner and Jim Wilson have a lot of history together; however, things have recently taken an ugly turn. As a result, the two are now in a financial, legal battle.

According to a court document via The Blast, Costner met Wilson in 1983 during a casting call. Wilson gave the actor his first lead role and to return the favor and honor the friendship, the Yellowstone actor hired him as Executive VP for his production company, TIG Productions. Costner also gave Wilson the producer’s role for the film Dances With Wolves.

However, where things get shaky for Costner and Wilson is when Costner made a deal with Warner Brothers involving TIG. The deal was that Costner would stay exclusive for all the films that either he or his production company produced, but it was alleged that Wilson was not included in that agreement. Instead, Wilson ventured out to do his own thing while still working for Costner. Costner formed a company called Good One Production in 1992 because TIG had a first-look deal with WB. His lawyers helped the actor form another entity outside of that deal and be a Writers Guild signatory.

With TIG funding all of Good Ones’ operations through loans, Costner has been the sole director and officer of the company since 2015, with Wilson not having any involvement in Good Ones since 2004. Over the summer, Costner decided to wind down Good Ones, so his lawyers sent Wilson a letter seeking to transfer his bare legal ownership stocks in the company to Costner. Wilson did not comply and wanted $500,000 to sign.

“[G]iven that Costner and Wilson had not done business together for more than 12 years, and Wilson was no longer an officer of TIG, it made no sense for Wilson to hold bare legal title GOP stock,” attorney Howard Kaplan said according to The Hollywood Reporter. “[Wilson] indicated he was not interested in producing any of the projects, not interested in any contingent compensation for any of the projects and did not want anything to do with Costner with respect to these projects. However, he refused to sign the agreement.” It’s alleged that Wilson made over $35 million from his business relationship with the movie star and his lucrative business opportunities in the process.