Already you can find some people out there saying that Taylor Sheridan is looking to bank on the success of Killers of the Flower Moon, but the Wind River director and Yellowstone creator has always made Native American stories central to this projects. And so it makes perfect sense that he’ll be adapting Empire of the Summer Moon, about Comanche war leader Quanah Parker.
Sheridan’s Bosque Ranch won a bidding war for the rights to S.C. Gwynne’s 2010 novel that centers on the 40-year struggle between the Comanche people and white settlers for territory. That same year, Scott Cooper was circling an adaptation of the book, but that never panned out.
Sheridan will produce, write, and direct the film which will center on Quanah Parker, whose mother was kidnapped by the Comanche when she was nine, her abduction inspiring such films as John Ford’s The Searchers. In Quanah’s case, when she was finally discovered, she was already married with a child and refused to leave the tribe, having no recollection of her former life.
Outside of his vast Yellowstone empire, Sheridan most recently directed Angelina Jolie in 2021’s Those Who Wish Me Dead.
Gwynne loves having Sheridan aboard, saying “I can’t think of anyone better qualified to bring “Empire of the Summer Moon” to the screen than Taylor Sheridan,” the writer said in a press statement. “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.” [Deadline]
