Taylor Sheridan may be better known for his role in the co-creation of one of the most popular series currently on television, Paramount’s Yellowstone. Still, the American filmmaker will be hoping to strike gold once more with his latest series, set to follow Chief Quannah Parker and his legendary tribe.
It was said that the famed fighters of the Comanche tribe that inhabited the Southern Plains of North America were some of the fiercest warriors in the 19th Century. With the enduring threat of European settlers encroaching on the Comanche tribe’s lands and resources, rival Native American tribes, Mexican forces, and, later, the United States Army, they needed to be.
For almost four decades, the Comanche Tribe were locked in a ferocious defence of the American West; its tales became history, and its Chief, Quannah Parker, became legend. The tribe’s stories were immortalised in S.C. Gwynne’s book Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History.
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Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan knows a thing or two about bringing to life the struggles for land in America’s contested natural states. The American actor, writer and director has spent the last five years immersing himself in the enduring modern struggles for land and natural resources in America’s contested states, and according to Gwynne, is the perfect candidate to bring this new story to life.
“I can’t think of anyone better qualified to bring Empire of the Summer Moon to the screen than Taylor Sheridan,” S.C. Gynne 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.”
Originally published in May 2010, Empire of the Summer Moon spent 82 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2016.
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The Comanche tribe were masterful horsemen, adapting to the use of horses first introduced by the Spanish and learned how to effectively use horses in combat from as young as 5 years old. Horsemanship was considered to be a crucial aspect of the cultural identity of the Plains Indian tribes and it was said that a warrior’s proficiency on horseback was a mark of his strength and power.
According to Deadline, the four-decade story of the Comanche tribe is “a long-standing passion project” of Taylor Sheridan and Bosque Ranch President Jenny Wood, and the pair were said to be aggressively pursuing the rights to Gynne’s material.