Malcolm Henry
No one is a hotter name in Hollywood than Taylor Sheridan. The former Sons of Anarchy role player has been on fire with projects topping the charts, namely Yellowstone and 1883, but he has more on the horizon.
Variety is reporting that Hell or High Water, a 2016 crime drama written by Sheridan and directed by David Mackenzie that did well in the theatre, will be headed to FOX as a serial television program.
The film starred Ben Foster and Chris Pine as bank-robbing brothers attempting to save their family’s land and evade Texas Rangers. The Rangers were played by Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham; the film earned four Oscar nominations, getting nods for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Bridges and Best Original Screenplay for Sheridan. It also got a nod for Best Editing.
“What I wanted to do was explore the modern American frontier. I wanted to explore the consequences of the settlement and assimilation of that land 130 years later. How much has really changed? And how much hasn’t?” he said in an interview with PopCulture.com. “And it’s not unique to America. You can make the same study in South America. You can make the same study in Europe. It was all settled, and it was all taken from someone, or someone was assimilated or pushed out. It happened so recently here that the waters are still muddy.”
Fox reportedly wants to ‘put a twist on the original story’ and will add a ruthless oil tycoon to the storyline. Certainly it will not detract from the bank-robbing brothers who are just consistently fighting to keep what belongs to them — while evading the Texas Rangers.
Variety adds that the one-hour drama project has a script and a series order. It also has lined up Jessica Mecklenburg (Dopesick and Stranger Things) to write and executive produce.
Sheridan does not appear to be involved with the interpretation at this stage of development, outside of being well prepared to cash a check!
Good for him.
