Donna Langley Says the Key to Stealing Taylor Sheridan Away From Paramount Was a Better Film Deal: ‘I Saw an Opportunity’

NBCUniversal Entertainment chair Donna Langley managed to snag “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan away from Paramount after a decade at the studio. How did she do it? By putting an emphasis on the film of his lucrative long-term TV and film pact.

Langley said her pursuit of Sheridan began after she “saw an opportunity” created by “disruption and instability” at Paramount. While never explicitly mentioning it, she was most likely referring to the turbulent yearlong merger process between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. News of Sheridan’s deal broke in late October of 2025, only months before David Ellison emerged victorious over Netflix in the battle for WB.

Related Stories

Red Sea Film Festival Cancels 2026 Edition, Will Return Next Year

Rough Seas: A War-Torn Middle East Isn't the Only Reason the Red Sea Film Festival Was Abruptly Canceled

“There’s just a moment to kind of look around the marketplace and see if there’s a competitive advantage,” Langley said during her interview at Bloomberg’s Screentime event on Thursday afternoon. “But really, where I started talking to Taylor was about film, because I knew that he had a film deal at Paramount, but it was a first-look deal. Didn’t have as many teeth to it as his television deal. That’s how it started, and then we just got to talking and one thing led to another.”

The film component of Sheridan’s NBCUniversal deal is expected to take effect in 2026, while the TV component will follow after he fulfills his contractual obligations to Paramount in 2028.

Sheridan broke out as a scribe for the big screen, writing films like “Sicario,” “Hell or High Water” and “Wind River.” But in more recent years, Sheridan has built a TV empire at Paramount, starting with “Yellowstone” in 2018. The Western drama has spawned a universe of spinoffs, including “1923,” “The Madison” and “Dutton Ranch.” He also created “Lioness,” “Marshals,” “Landman” and “Mayor of Kingstown.”

Sheridan is returning to his cinema roots soon. He wrote the scripts for Paramount’s upcoming “Call of Duty Movie” and “Sicario 3.”