No one who had met Sheridan Taylor Gibler jr. in his early youth, when he earned a living mowing lawns and painting houses in Austin, the capital of Texas, where he had come to study at the local university, he would have imagined that this boy would one day become the new king of television in the United States. In the last year he has produced and written five series, including the very popular Yellowstone. He began the path to the world of entertainment in the simplest way, when a talent scout found him asking for work in a shopping center in that city and suggested that he travel to Chicago to try his luck as an actor.
She began with small roles in film and television using the pseudonym Taylor Sheridan when she was 23, and at 25 she landed her first regular role in the series Veronica Mars. He was 26 when he was hired to play David Hale in Sons of Anarchy, and while his good looks and a good dose of talent helped him stand out in the role, had he continued down this path he doubtless would have made it this far. far away. Everything changed 12 years ago, when the son of a cardiologist from Forth Worth, Texas, decided to write a screenplay when he only had $800 left in his bank account. Mayor of Kingstown was a huge success. Numerous studios and agencies made financial offers to give it to more experienced screenwriters and producers to bring it to the screen.
However, Sheridan refused and preferred to keep it in a drawer. Instead, he did agree to let Denis Villaneuve direct the next script, Sicari , which starred Benicio del Toro, Emily Blunt and Josh Brolin and put him on the map thanks to box office success accompanied by critical respect and three nominations at the Oscars. David Mackenzie directed the next project, Comancheria, with Jeff Bridges and Chris Pine, for which he received the only nomination for the Academy Award for Best Screenplay.
Sheridan completed the film trilogy with Wind River, his directorial debut, which took him to Sundance and Cannes with Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen, and in which he made his first forays into a subject he’s obsessed with. , the indigenous reserves. And although at that time he was already a respected filmmaker, the best was yet to come.
Yellowstone, the series in which he immersed himself in country life, drawing inspiration from visits to his grandparents’ homestead in Texas and his own experience as a homesteader, was initially acquired by HBO, which turned it down Costner as the lead and asked instead for Robert Redford, something Sheridan got, although the studio later clarified that they didn’t want the octogenarian actor, but someone who looked like him when he was younger. The negotiation ended badly, and although the studios usually keep the scripts they don’t want to film to avoid competition, in this case a senior executive about to leave returned the rights, which allowing Paramount to later turn it into one of the biggest television hits of the decade.
The transformation into king of the medium, however, had a purely real estate reason. When the owner of the gigantic estate 6666 in west Texas left in her will that he would be the first to have the opportunity to buy the place, similar in size to the one owned by John Dutton in Montana, Sheridan did not he balked when he was told the price was 320 million euros, although he only had 18 million to invest. Paramount’s interest in expanding the Yellowstone universe and taking advantage of the screenwriter’s amazing talent in other projects led to an agreement for 183 million European currency for him to sit down to work. Taylor Sheridan bought the 108,000-acre estate with the help of some investors, and moved in with his wife and son.
Famous for not letting others make decisions, although he initially hired respected showrunners to take on other projects, the 53-year-old was responsible for two Yellowstone prequels, 1883 and 1923 , with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, Mayor of Kingston, which he finally made on his own terms, and Tulsa King with Sylvester Stallone. In addition, he directed his second feature film, Aquellos que desean mi muerte, with Angelina Jolie, his first resounding failure.
Accustomed to writing episodes without help in a few days, Taylor has already finished filming Special Ops: Lioness with Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman and is preparing three more series, Land Man with Billy Bob Thornton, and two stories from the world of Yellowstone, a spin – off , which he will film in his own estate, and a sequel, which could star Matthew McConaghey.
