NBCUniversal Entertainment president Donna Langley managed to pry “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan away from Paramount after a decade at the studio. How did he do this? By emphasizing that film of a lucrative long-term TV and film deal.
Langley said his pursuit of Sheridan began “after seeing the opportunity” created by the “disruption and instability” at Paramount. Although he never explicitly mentions it, it’s likely that Paramount and Skydance are working together with Warner Bros. He was referring to the turbulent year-long unification process between the two. News that Sheridan’s deal fell apart in late October 2025, just months before David Ellison emerged victorious against Netflix in the WB war.
“We only have a minute to look at the market and see if there’s a competitive advantage,” Langley said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Screentime event Thursday afternoon. “But actually where I started talking to Taylor was about the movie, because I knew she had a movie deal at Paramount, but it was a face-to-face deal. It didn’t have as much as a television deal. It started that way, and then we started talking and one thing led to another.”
The film component of Sheridan’s NBCUniversal deal is expected to go into effect in 2026, while the TV component is expected to come in 2028 after he fulfills his contractual obligations to Paramount.
Sheridan broke out on the big screen as a screenwriter, writing films such as “Sicario,” “Hell or High Water” and “Wind River.” But in recent years, Sheridan has built a TV empire at Paramount, starting with 2018’s “Yellowstone.” The Western drama has spawned several spinoff universes, including “1923,” “The Madison” and “Dutton Ranch.” He also created “The Lioness,” “Cops,” “The Landman,” and “The Mayor of Kingstown.”
Sheridan is soon returning to his movie roots. He wrote the screenplays for Paramount’s upcoming “Call of Duty Movie” and “Sicario 3.”