‘Yellowstone’ Creator Taylor Sheridan Created ‘Land Man’ With 1 Oscar Winner in Mind to Star
Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan recently made a huge announcement — he has five new shows in development for Paramount+. Sheridan is set to expand his universe with a new Yellowstone prequel, plus four other series that tell unique American stories. One of the shows is Land Man, a drama about the West Texas oil boom. And Sheridan had one specific Oscar winner in mind to star in the series when he created it.
The ‘Yellowstone’ creator has huge stars attached to his new projects
Sheridan already has Yellowstone on the air, along with the prequel 1883 and the prison drama Mayor of Kingstown. He also has the Yellowstone spinoff 6666 in development, and it is expected to premiere this year. But Sheridan was just getting started with those series.
Now, the writer/director has five more projects in development. And four of those already have major stars attached to them.
The star of the new Yellowstone prequel 1932 has yet to be announced. But Sheridan’s new series Lioness will star Zoe Saldaña, The Tulsa King will star Sylvester Stallone, Bass Reeves will star David Oyelowo, and Land Man will star Billy Bob Thornton.
Taylor Sheridan had Billy Bob Thornton in mind when he created ‘Land Man’
Land Man is a new series based on the podcast Boomtown which is set in the world of oil rigs. According to Outsider, the series is described as “an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires that are fueling a boom so big it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics.”
When developing his idea, Sheridan said he only had one person in mind to be the star of the series.
“I developed it for Billy Bob Thornton. He’s a crisis manager for an oil company,” Sheridan said.
Billy Bob Thornton says the ‘Yellowstone’ creator’s writing was too good to pass up
Many actors who have worked with Sheridan have praised his writing style, and Thornton — who made a cameo in 1883 — is no exception. He says he’s excited about Land Man because the scripts are so good.
“It’s about the world of the oil business that we generally don’t see,” Thornton said. “When you see writing that good, it really excites you.”
Sheridan says he likes to write all of his TV series like a novel, but that does come with its own set of challenges. Everything he shoots takes place outside for the most part, which makes his productions “beholden to the weather.” So, the cast and crew must “force” their way through.
“But at the end of the day, to go to some of these locations where most people have never been, where you’re opening up a new world, and all of these places or characters in the story, to me, it’s fascinating,” Sheridan said.
Taylor Sheridan’s series ‘look like a movie’
Sheridan noted that the way he writes and shoots a series is hard physically on the actors and the crew. So he feels like “the shots look earned.” He also pointed out that Paramount gives him plenty of time and money to make his series look theatrical.
“Because Paramount trusts me and gives me the time to go shoot 10 to 14 days for a television episode, we can treat it like a movie, and it looks like a movie. We can take the time to rehearse it and light it and build these set pieces. And if I call them and say, ‘I need two helicopters in one day,’ they just go, all right,” Sheridan explained.
‘Land Man’ from ‘Yellowstone’ creator Taylor Sheridan begins production in 2023
As an Oscar winner for 1996’s Sling Blade, Thornton definitely has a lot of feature film experience on his resume. So he’ll be right at home on the set of Land Man. But he has done a lot of television in recent years. He even won a Golden Globe for his performances in both Fargo and Goliath.
It will be a while, though, before fans will see Thornton in Land Man. With Sheridan having so many series in different stages of development, Land Man reportedly won’t begin production until 2023. No other cast members have been announced yet. The only other detail about the series that has been confirmed is that it will be part of the lineup on streamer Paramount+.
In the meantime, fans can catch Thornton in his new feature thriller The Gray Man, which is scheduled to hit Netflix in July 2022.
