It has been more than two years since Taylor Sheridan directed a feature film, but the Yellowstone co-creator is ready to return to the big screen.
Sheridan, 53, has optioned the non-fiction book Empire Of The Summer Moon: Quanah Parker And The Rise And Fall Of The Comanches, The Most Powerful Indian Tribe In American History, Deadline reported this week.
The book traces the history of the Comanche Nation through the mid-19th century and into the 20th century as Quanah Parker, often described as the Last Chief of the Comanche, went to battle against colonizing settlers from the East.
Sheridan secured the rights to adapt the book, which was written by S. C. Gwynne, through a tense bidding war, though Bosque Ranch is said to have aggressively bid to secure the property.
The Yellowstone mastermind, who already has five spin-offs to that series ongoing or in the works, will reportedly be writing and directed the epic film.
Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan has optioned the non-fiction book Empire Of The Summer Moon as his next film to write, direct and produce, according to Deadline; seen in 2021 in Las Vegas
The book traces the Comanche Nation in the mid-to-late 19th century and follows its ‘final’ chief Quanah, who pushed back French and Spanish colonizers before ultimately surrendering to US troops
He’ll also be producing for Bosque Ranch with Jenny Wood.
The adaptation was originally set to be handled at Warner Bros., and Sheridan was reportedly interested in helming the project back then, though it doesn’t appear to have any current connection to the film giant.
‘I can’t think of anyone better qualified to bring Empire Of The Summer Moon to the screen than Taylor Sheridan,’ Gwynne said. ‘He has a deep and nuanced understanding of both the myth and reality of the Old West. I am thrilled that he is undertaking this project.’
The historian’s book became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize after it was published in 2010.
Empire Of The Summer moon traces the Comanche toward the end of the 19th as Quanah Parker led the tribe.
His mother, Cynthia Ann Parker, a European American woman, was abducted by the Comanche during an attack on a US fort when she was around nine years old.
Unlike other abductees, who were returned to their families, she was adopted by a Comanche family and became completely assimilated into the tribe due to her young age.
She married a chief, Peta Nocona, and had three children with him, including Quanah, the last of the tribe’s chiefs before the Comanche Nation was forced to move onto a reservation in Oklahoma.
Cynthia Parker was later captured by Texas Rangers when she was 33, and they forced her to separate from Quanah and her other children, though she desperately tried to reunite with her Comanche family, as she had little memory of her time with her Anglo-American family. Her story was a major inspiration for the Natalie Wood character in John Ford’s classic John Wayne–starring Western, The Searchers (1956).
Quanah and the Comanches were successful early on in fending off Spanish and French colonizers, and they later went to battle against US forces, but he eventually put down his weapons as settlers continued to decimate American bison herds.
The US government later appointed him the principal chief of the Comanche Nation, though the position was later replace by the tribe with a chairman position.
The new film will be Sheridan’s first since 2021’s Those Who Wish Me Dead. He has lately been consumed with drama on his series Yellowstone (pictured), which has five spinoffs ongoing or in the works
Sheridan has long been fascinated by Quanah, who features in 1883 and 1923. Quanah allegedly selected the location of the Four Sixes ranch in Texas, which Sheridan later bought, and it include artifacts belonging to the chief
According to Deadline, Sheridan has had a years-long fascination with Quanah, and the massive Four Sixes ranch that he bought — with an investor group — had a lance that once belonged to the chief, though it has since been moved to a museum for safe keeping.
Burk Burnett, who founded the ranch in 1870, had been friends with Quanah, and the Comanche chief reportedly selected the prime location for him in Texas.
He allegedly even killed a deer to mark the occasion, and its antler still hang above the enormous stone fireplace decoration the living room of the ranch’s main house.
Sheridan has previously featured or referenced Quanah in both his Yellowstone spinoffs 1883 and 1923.