All photos courtesy of Emerson Miller/Paramount+ unless otherwise noted.
Photo courtesy of Paramount+
In the script for the first episode of Landman Season 1, a Beechcra King
airplane lands on a highway. And it couldn't appear to land. It had to actually
land. The plane would drop down out of the Texas sky and touch down, coming
to a stop where it would meet with a van whose occupants would then begin
to offload narcotics. And as if that wasn't enough, a fuel tanker truck would
then roar over a ridge and crash into the plane creating a massive explosion.
The series, which follows Billy Bob Thornton's 'Tommy Norris' as a "fixer" for an
independent oil company in West Texas, is full of wild sequences, but nothing compares to
this. Reading that in the pilot script, one might think, "OK, big VFX sequence." But Landman
isn't just any show, it's a Taylor Sheridan show, which means whether it's 300 head of cattle,
an aerial shot of a character fly-fishing in the middle of a river set in a rocky canyon miles
from civilization or a shootout in the middle of a crowded city market, the goal is always to
try to shoot it practically.
To say that Sheridan is prolific would be a massive understatement. Among the films he has
written, are the Academy Award-nominated Hell or High Water, Sicario and the critically
acclaimed Wind River which he also directed. But it's on television where his output has been
astonishing. Sheridan has created, executive produced and written no less than eight shows,
including Yellowstone, 1923, 1883, Tulsa King, Mayor of Kingstown and Lioness. He is also
an EP on Dutton Ranch and Marshals, two shows based on characters he created. Now,
two new series, Landman and The Madison, have taken center stage, capturing enthusiastic
audience reception and professional accolades for the latest Paramount+ Sheridan entries.
The plane sequence is a perfect encapsulation of the Sheridan production machine: a
highly specific image or sequence, an uncompromising practical approach and a location
team expected to make the nearly impossible seem … inevitable.
