Yellowstone has been a hit in Australia on the Stan streaming service and it is now available on digital, DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Starring Kevin Costner, Yellowstone has been described as “The Godfather on a ranch”.
From the brilliant creative mind of Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water and Sicario) and starring Academy Award Winner Kevin Costner, Yellowstone revolves around the Dutton family, led by John Dutton (Costner) who controls the largest ranch in the U.S. that is under constant attack by those it borders: land developers, an Indian reservation and America’s first National Park.
This is a world where land grabs make developers billions, and politicians are bought and sold by the world’s largest oil and lumber corporations. It is the best and worst of America seen through the eyes of a family that represents both. The impressive cast also includes Wes Bentley, Kelly Reilly, Luke Grimes, Cole Hauser, Kelsey Asbille, Danny Huston, Gil Birmingham, Brecken Merrill, Jefferson White, and many more.
But how much do we really know about the smash series after three seasons?
Here are the facts behind Yellowstone:
- In the United States, Yellowstone is the biggest first-year cable drama—in any season—since American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson in 2016.
- The show was shot in Utah and Montana.
- The filming location for the Dutton family’s Yellowstone Ranch is the 150-acre Chief Joseph Ranch, located in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley. When not acting as the home of Kevin Costner et al, the ranch is a guesthouse and family home. If you want to stay there, bad luck, Chief Joseph Ranch is booked up for 2021.
- Taylor Sheridan was inspired by story about the gentrification of the American west. Yellowstone tackled the complicated issues of land use politics, substance abuse and the challenges of life on modern Native American reservations.
- The Yellowstone script that Sheridan originally sent Costner was for a movie but everyone loved the world that the writer-director had created so much that a television series was the only way to fully explore the lives of the Dutton’s.
- Writer, director and executive producer Taylor Sheridan started his career as an actor with small part on Veronica Mars and a recurring role as Deputy Chief of Police David Hale on Sons of Anarchy. Sheridan also has a small role in Yellowstone as horse trader Travis Wheatley.
- Taylor Sheridan wrote Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, was nominated for an Oscar for his script for Hell or High Water and recently directed Angelina Jolie in Those Who Wish Me Dead.
- Texas native Taylor Sheridan brought in his own personal horses from Wyoming for the cast to ride during filming and put all the actors through horse training.
- Despite being worried about not knowing his character’s story arc, Costner chose Yellowstone for his first long-running TV series (not counting the limited miniseries Hatfields & McCoys in 2012).
- Costner is no stranger to the western genre having starred in Silverado, Wyatt Earp, Open Range, and his Best Picture-winning Western epic Dances With Wolves.
- Yellowstone actors Kelsey Asbille, Gil Birmingham, Martin Sensmeier, Tokala Black Elk, Ian Bohen, Hugh Dillon, James Jordan, Gabe Casdorph and Mason D. Davis had worked with Sheridan on his Elizabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner starring 2017 crime mystery Wind River.
- Yellowstone marked a Wyatt Earp (1999) reunion for Costner and Ian Bohen who plays Ryan, a ranch hand at Yellowstone and a livestock agent.
- Danny Huston and Wes Bentley both previously collaborated on the fourth season of Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story.
- Danny Huston and Kevin Costner have both appeared in films in the DC Cinematic universe, Huston in Wonder Woman (2017) and Costner as Jonathan Kent in Man Of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2020).
- Maynard James Keenan, frontman of alternative rockers Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer has multiple songs on the first season’s soundtrack.
Yellowstone Season 3: New to Blu-ray, DVD & Digital
Facts compiled by David Michael Brown