Oscar-winning actors, Hollywood royalty, film auteurs – everyone wants a piece of that signature Taylor Sheridan action that will turn them into an instant classic. The part-cowboy, part-filmmaker identity of Sheridan is so deeply rooted in his pop culture reputation that he embeds the lost art of Westerns into every project that he spearheads.
However, while most reputed actors and directors in the field get stale beyond a certain limit if they keep working in a single genre, Sheridan only gets better with time. His initial frontier trilogy – Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River – was nothing short of extraordinary, and his work in television is the same.
Taylor Sheridan: The most wanted man in Hollywood
Storytelling comes easily to Taylor Sheridan. The actor-turned-scriptwriter credits his 20+ years as a struggling artist for being so brilliant now as a newly minted writer-director in the industry. After reading hundreds upon hundreds of terrible scripts, Sheridan says that the trick lies not in knowing what works but in knowing what to avoid while crafting a good story.
In fact, the trick paid off as Sheridan now has some of the world’s most formidable, veteran, and talented actors waiting in line to be picked for his next project. Meanwhile, Chris McCarthy, co-CEO of Paramount Global, credits some of the American greats for influencing Sheridan’s works.
In an interview with The Wrap, McCarthy revealed:
It is no surprise that [Sheridan] admires and has been influenced by some of our greatest American writers such as Cormac McCarthy and Larry McMurtry. Like them, he delves into themes related to the American experience and the core values that have shaped our nation’s identity. This is why some of the most talented actors in the world want to work with him – including many Oscar-nominated actors and winners that previously had not done TV before — and why together we have launched a record nine No. 1 series in row.
Taylor Sheridan, with his Oscar-nominated skills as a writer, has not only attracted some of the greatest actors of this generation but also been in their good graces, including Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren.
The greatest hits of Taylor Sheridan
It has been 10 years since Taylor Sheridan debuted as a scriptwriter in Hollywood and stunned the entire world into silence with Sicario. It was his first script as a writer, the first one to get picked up by a studio, and the first to get made into a film without the added burden of development hell and studio politics.
Soon after, Hell or High Water won him his first Academy Award nomination, and his directorial debut, Wind River, became a traumatizing re-examination of American history. Since 2018, Sheridan’s work in television has produced one masterpiece after another, starting with Paramount’s flagship series, Yellowstone, which has singlehandedly started a neo-Western renaissance.
Impressed by his skillset as a writer-director, Dame Helen Mirren said about his creative process (via The Wrap):
It’s not like you’re a part of a whole writing team of people. It’s one man. It’s one man’s vision and voice, which is so distinctive and so beautifully constructed.
Now, actors like Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, Sylvester Stallone, Jon Hamm, Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore, and more have nothing but praise in their hearts and stars in their eyes while talking about the filmmaker – and for good reason, too.
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