New Paramount boss David Ellison probably regrets the words he used only two months ago to describe his bond with TV impresario Taylor Sheridan.

“I have a really good relationship with Taylor, and I think he is a singular genius and content creator,” Ellison told MSNBC.

“My goal is to have Taylor call Paramount his home for as long as he wants to be telling stories.”

 

 

Sheridan is the man who created Yellowstone and its spin-offs, as well as popular shows Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, Lioness, Landman and Lawmen: Bass Reeves.

He is a hitmaker with an iron-fist control over a TV empire and someone every studio boss wants in their stable. Sheridan’s shows attracts millions of viewers, even on linear TV, at a time of fractured viewing.

 

 

He was also one of Paramount’s most valuable assets when Ellison’s company, Skydance, took over the storied Hollywood studio in a $US8 billion takeover.

Now, Sheridan is headed for the door, having defected to rival NBCUniversal in a mega-deal that has all of Hollywood abuzz.

 

 

It’s a massive coup for Universal and its chair of entertainment, Donna Langley, who orchestrated the poaching of Sheridan. The news was first reported by Puck, who wrote that Sheridan signed an eight-year film contract and a five-year TV deal with a “major pay increase”.

Deadline reported, citing anonymous sources, that the TV deal could be worth around $US1 billion including upfront and backend fees. Universal’s streaming platform in the US is Peacock, whose titles are currently distributed in Australia mostly through Binge and Foxtel.

 

 

Yellowstone fans don’t have to despair just yet because Sheridan’s Universal deal doesn’t kick in until his current contract with Paramount expires at the end of 2028, which means the writer will still be committed to his existing TV universe for a further three years.

While the original Yellowstone series wrapped earlier this year, there are several spin-offs in the works including two shows which follow the surviving Dutton kids – Dutton Ranch, centred on Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Wheeler (Cole Hauser) and has signed up luminaries Annette Bening and Ed Harris, and Y: Marshals, which will see Kayce (Luke Grimes) join the US Marshals.

Also set within the Yellowstone universe are The Madison with Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Fox and Patrick J. Adams, and another historical saga, 1944, which follows in the template of 1923 and 1883.

Sheridan will be working on all those Yellowstone shows, but if they outlast his tenure at Paramount, they will continue without him.

Everything Sheridan has created for Paramount will stay there, and the studio owns the rights to that intellectual property, giving them the ability to extend them, spin them off, create new shows based on existing and different characters.

If that eventuates, it will definitely be interesting to see how it would work and who would take over the creative reins.