How Nicole Kidman’s lioness pushed Taylor Sheridan out of his comfort zone

Writer, producer, actor, and director Taylor Sheridan clearly wants to do it all, and he currently has several TV projects going at once. His successful Paramount+ series “Yellowstone” spawned several spin-off films, including the now-completed “1883” and “1923,” with Several additional “Yellowstone” spin-offs are in the works. Not only that, he’s also the creator of the Paramount+ shows “Tulsa King,” “Mayor of Kingstown,” “Landman,” and “Lions,” making him an obscenely busy artist. After all, not only does he serve as the creator and often direct these shows, but he also traditionally writes the entire thing himself, which is an enormous amount of work. to Sylvester Stallone starring in “Tulsa King” and Lioness starring Nicole Kidman, but he finally relinquished a little control and hired writers to help him complete his vision.

Although this doesn’t seem like a big deal, handing over your various projects to others can be quite challenging, and Sheridan seems like a creative who maintains strict artistic control over all of his projects, which is probably how he has maintained a certain level of quality in all of his shows. In a 2022 interview with diverseSheridan revealed that it wasn’t dealing with prairie creatures in “Yellowstone” or filming the intense events of “Lions” that pushed him out of his comfort zone the most. Rather, he delegated little and allowed others to do the work for him. Look, when you have nine or ten series in production at once, you kind of need a mandate!

Sheridan has a truly impressive filmographyhaving written the massive neo-Western-style heist thriller “Hell or High Water” in 2016 and the stunning crime thriller “Sicario” in 2015, but his writing credits for television extend even further. He’s created series for almost every type of TV-watching parent, whether they’re interested in war, political intrigue, ranching, or organized crime, but there’s only so much time in the day, and he finally had to delegate some of it to other writers. He told Variety that he wasn’t sure how he would be able to delegate to his writing teams and help share his ideas, but since “Lions” and “Tulsa King” were huge hits for Paramount+, it’s safe to say the writers and Sheridan are working fairly well together.

There is one instance where Sheridan really doesn’t seem to like delegating to others, and that’s when it comes to choosing some big-name stars for his shows. “I don’t think anyone can talk to my projects better than me, so I’d better cut out the middleman and just call myself,” he explained, referring to the fact that he called both Kidman and Zoe Saldana personally to offer to star in “Lions.” They both have so much power, who wouldn’t want to see them on screen together? I think you can add Casting coordinator To the long list of job duties Sheridan carries, though at least his writing load is (a little) lighter these days.