Taylor Sheridan Returning to Film After Stepping Away From ‘Yellowstone’ Franchise

Taylor Sheridan is returning to writing films after stepping away from creative control of the Yellowstone TV universe. His production company will produce two new films, Visalia and Capture the Flag. The movies come from Andrew Lauren, a producer of The Brutalist, who says he conceptualized these stories with Sheridan before Yellowstone became a hit.

Sheridan’s Bosque Ranch Productions and 101 Studios, the studio behind Yellowstone and other Sheridan TV titles, announced on July 27 that they have acquired the rights to Visalia and Capture the Flag. The films are original concepts by Lauren, written by Academy Award nominee Sheridan, and will be produced by Sheridan’s Bosque Ranch Productions, 101 Studios, and Lauren himself.

This marks Sheridan’s first feature film in five years. The last films he wrote were 2021’s Those Who Wish Me Dead, starring Angelina Jolie, Nicholas Hoult, Jon Bernthal, Medina Senghore, Aidan Gillen, and Yellowstone/Dutton Ranch‘s Finn Little, and Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, starring Michael B. Jordan. Sheridan was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay for 2016’s Hell or High Water.

Sheridan has mostly been writing and producing TV shows in recent years. After Yellowstone became a hit, he continued writing franchise expansions with the prequel spinoffs 1883 and 1923. He also writes Mayor of Kingstown, Landman, Tulsa King, Lioness, and The Madison for Paramount. He’s still an executive producer on the existing Yellowstone TV shows, Marshals and Dutton Ranch, but he’s not writing them.

Visalia follows a determined young Cuban woman who escapes the only life she’s ever known, braving treacherous waters and relentless danger in pursuit of freedom in America. But when a historic political shift pulls her back to Cuba, she must confront the uncertain promises of a homeland transformed — and the price she’s paid to survive it.

Capture the Flag throws a NASA engineer into a desperate race to build the first reusable spacecraft capable of traveling to the moon and back, testing his limits, loyalties, and morals when a tech tycoon offers him the chance to make history — if he’s willing to pay for it.

“These two projects have been years in the making — ideas I believed in deeply, never anticipating that advances in science and shifts in the political landscape would accelerate their path to realization,” said Lauren. “I worked on developing them with Taylor long before his emergence as one of the industry’s most distinctive, visionary voices. It’s incredibly rewarding to see his continued passion and commitment to bringing these stories to the screen.”

Lauren founded Andrew Lauren Productions (ALP), dedicated to independent features and documentaries. In addition to The Brutalist (10 Academy Award nominations), Lauren’s credits include Vox Lux, The Spectacular Now, and The Squid and the Whale (Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay). He also executive produced The Statement, directed by Tom McCarthy and starring Paul Rudd, John Turturro, and Paul Giamatti, arriving this fall.