Taylor Sheridan’s hit Paramount Network series “Yellowstone” seems like it was tailor-made for gruff older men and the women who love

them, and that’s in large part because of the Western authors who inspired it. In an interview with Variety in 2022, the writer and producer

revealed that he was heavily inspired by the late, great Western authors Cormac McCarthy and Larry McMurty, both known for their gritty

demystifications of life on the frontier. McMurty was best known for writing novels like “Terms of Endearment,” which was turned into an Academy Award-winning film, and he also co-wrote the screenplay for Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain.” McCarthy was a bit bleaker, writing novels like “Blood Meridian” and “No Country for Old Men,” which was also turned into an Academy Award-winning film.

For Sheridan, the unusual perspectives of these authors helped shape his own work in the Western genre, from “Yellowstone” to his screenplay for the fantastic neo-Western “Hell or High Water,” which definitely feels at home alongside McCarthy’s work and its tendency towards violence. The hardened grit and heavy themes of Sheridan’s series all come from McCarthy and McMurty, though it’s hard to imagine either of them coming up with some of the more ridiculous parts of “Yellowstone.”.

While explaining his influences and how “Yellowstone” came to be, Sheridan was effusive in his love for the two Western authors, along with the great novelist Toni Morrison (who wrote a number of novels, including the phenomenal Southern gothic “Beloved”):

The connections between Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven” and “Yellowstone” seem pretty direct, as they’re both about showing cowboys as more human and less like mythic heroes, though the Morrison connection is definitely a bit fuzzier since she wrote so heavily about race and the main “Yellowstone” series is very, very white. Perhaps the most satisfying thing for Sheridan is that he found out that McCarthy was actually a huge fan of the series and watched as much of it as he could before he passed away in 2023. They say to never meet your heroes, but it sounds like Sheridan really lucked out on that one.

At this point, Paramount must be running out of space for any more titles from television show-making machine Taylor Sheridan. While “Yellowstone” might have drawn to a close, he still has the spin-offs lined up along with the likes of standalone titles, “Landman,” “Lioness,” “Tulsa King,” and “Mayor of Kingstown” nicely ticking along as well. Of course, television isn’t the only space Sheridan has occupied. Some of his best stories have been on the big screen instead of the small.

Before we even knew who John Dutton was and what it meant to be “taken to the train station,” Taylor Sheridan was making a name for himself writing movies before really having a go at directing them. As with his television output, there have been some weak misses and some massive hits among the movies, and some you might be surprised he even played a part in helping create. Here’s the ranking of every Taylor Sheridan movie project to which he has a writing or directing credit attached, beginning with his first time behind the camera when he dared to dabble in the horror genre.