Taylor Sheridan admits juggling nine shows is "excessive," but "I kind of have to take advantage of it"

Variety

Sheridan's nine shows, currently airing or in the works, include Yellowstone and spinoffs 1883, 1932 and 6666, plus Mayor of Kingstown, Sylvester Stallone-led mob drama Tulsa King, Zoe Saldaña-led Lioness, David Oyelowo-led Bass Reeves and Billy Bob Thornton-led Land Man. “This volume of work is not sustainable for a long period of time,” Sheridan tells Variety. “But it’s an opportunity to tell stories the way I want to tell them with a creative freedom that just doesn’t exist in this space. And so I kind of have to take advantage of it…I don’t necessarily want to be doing this when I’m 70. I don’t know that I want to be doing it when I’m 60. So I’d rather work real hard to do it now.” But Sheridan is able to hook big names, as the story of how he landed Stallone for the action movie icon's first TV series role reveals. Sheridan came up with the idea for Tulsa King during lockdown and phoned Stallone directly to talk about the show. Days later, Stallone told him, “I love it. When do we shoot it?" and Tulsa King was quickly sold to Paramount. For Lioness, he directly called Saldaña and Nicole Kidman, who is executive producing. “I don’t think anyone can speak to my projects better than me,” Sheridan says of his habit of direct-dialing A-list stars. “So I might as well just cut out the middleman and just call myself.”