Beyond Yellowstone: All Taylor Sheridan-Written Movies, Ranked (& 2 Upcoming)
With shows like Landman, Tulsa King and Yellowstone (and all of its many spinoffs), Taylor Sheridan has proven himself to be perhaps the most successful and prolific television writer of his generation.
Since breaking out as a screenwriter with his WGA-nominated script for Denis Villeneuve’s remarkable cartel thriller Sicario, from 2015, Sheridan has gone on to write (and in some cases direct) some of the finest hard-boiled Hollywood crime movies of the last decade or so — so, if you’ve ever wondered what movies Taylor Sheridan has written, the guide below has all the info.
In the list below, you’ll find info on each of the six features that Taylor Sheridan has penned so far in his career — which I’ve ranked in ascending order — and ahead of that, as much information as we could gather on his upcoming feature F.A.S.T. and his recently announced (and hotly anticipated) Call of Duty adaptation for Paramount studios.
Read on to learn a bit more about each of them and use the guide below to find them on services like Apple TV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere.
F.A.S.T. (2027)
Perhaps as a result of the lukewarm response to his last two scripted movies, Sheridan has spent the last five years focusing his energies on his considerable television output. Next year, however, he’s set to make his long-awaited return to feature filmmaking with F.A.S.T. — a project that sounds very much in the Sheridan wheelhouse.
Directed by Yellowstone and Beasts of the Southern Wild cinematographer Ben Richardson, with a release date scheduled for April next year, F.A.S.T. will follow a former Special Forces Commando on the trail of some C.I.A.-protected drug dealers — a selection of words you will likely find on most Sheridan bingo cards. Brandon Sklenar, Juliana Canfield, LaKeith Stanfield and Jason Clarke lead the tasty-sounding cast.
Call of Duty (TBA)
At the time of writing, not a huge amount is known about Sheridan’s hotly anticipated feature adaptation of the hugely popular Call of Duty video game franchise — aside from the fact that Sheridan is writing it, Paramount is producing it, and Peter Berg (Deepwater Horizon) is set to direct.
As with any Sheridan project, we can likely expect a brooding, muscular meditation on violence and heroism with plenty of appeal for audiences in America’s redder states. Watch this space.
With the release of Yellowstone in 2018, Sheridan’s focus turned swiftly to television for a few years before reuniting with his Day of the Soldado director Stefano Sollima on Without Remorse — an adaptation of Tom Clancy’s 1993 novel about a Navy SEAL out for revenge against the Russian hitman who killed his wife and team.
Looking back, the long-in-production movie was really the first dud of Sheridan’s writing career. It does, however, boast our newly anointed and reigning Best Actor winner, Michael B. Jordan in the lead role — so if you’re currently on a Jordan kick, you might want to give it a try.
A few months after Without Remorse’s release, Sheridan was back on screens with Those Who Wish Me Dead, his second film as writer and director after Wind River. The story follows a boy who is forced to go on the run from two assassins after seeing his father murdered in cold blood.
For this one, Sheridan rounded up a formidable cast: Angelina Jolie, Aidan Gillen and Nicholas Hoult all feature. Despite the strength of the source material (the story was adapted from Michael Koryta’s critically acclaimed and best-selling novel), I wouldn’t rank it amongst his best. Still, if you appreciate on-the-run movies like Witness or The Fugitive, you’ll probably have a decent time with it.
Three years after the original’s celebrated release, Sheridan returned to the world of Sicario (more on that one shortly) with Day of the Soldado, a movie that reunited Brolin and Del Toro under the direction of Stefano Sollima — the Italian filmmaker and producer behind the long-running Gomorrah TV show.
Focusing once again on the world of cartels, this time through the prism of international terrorism, the movie was a solid hit upon release — even if Sollima couldn’t quite match Villeneuve’s virtuosic directorial style. It was, however, the first major score from composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, who won an Oscar for her work on Joker the following year. If you have a soft spot for the Icelandic musician’s singularly apocalyptic cello sounds, you will likely feel right at home.
When Graham Greene passed away last year at the age of 73, fans of the great Native American star were quick to reference Sheridan’s Wind River (his first film as writer-director) as Greene’s last great role. For this one, the Dances with Wolves actor plays a tribal police Chief assisting an FBI agent (Elisabeth Olsen) on a murder case where the victim is a teenage girl.
Released a year before Yellowstone kickstarted his career as a showrunner, Wind River once again showcased Sheridan’s steady eye for worrying crime stories and police procedurals. If you’re a fan of shows like True Detective and Mare of Easttown, this one will be right up your alley.
After seeing Sicario, his screenwriting debut, compete for the 2015 Palme d’Or in Cannes, Sheridan returned to the festival competition the following year with Hell or High Water, a neo-Western that went on to earn him his first and still only nomination for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars.
Sheridan’s gripping story follows two brothers (played by Chris Pine and Ben Foster) who attempt a series of heists around the West Texas backroads — specifically targeting the bank that has threatened to foreclose on their family’s ranch. Jeff Bridges is typically great as the Texas Ranger hot on their trail in a film that feels very much in the lineage of movies like 3:10 to Yuma and No Country for Old Men — which is to say, it’s a must-see for any modern Western fan.
After 15 years in front of the camera (he notably acted in shows like Sons of Anarchy and Veronica Mars), Sheridan made an unforgettable first splash as a screenwriter when Denis Villeneuve adapted his air-tight and wonderfully brooding script for Sicario into one of the most gripping crime movies of the 2010s.
The plot follows an FBI agent (played in a breakout performance by Emily Blunt) as she descends a rabbit hole into the nihilistic world of a brutal Mexican cartel. Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro round out the cast, but it’s Sheridan’s writing and ideas that stick with you after the credits roll. It was a remarkable calling card upon release and remains his strongest feature to date.
