Taylor Sheridan, pictured at the 2023 Texas Medal of Arts Awards in Austin, will produce and direct a movie about the Battle of the Alamo
As a screenwriter and director, Taylor Sheridan has told Texas stories, from the movie “Hell or High Water” to the TV series “Landman.”
Now the filmmaker, who grew up in Fort Worth, is taking on the story central to Texas’ history and identity – the Battle of the Alamo.
Sheridan has been tapped to produce and direct a film of the battle that will be shown at the new Alamo Visitor Center and Museum, according to an announcement today by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
“Once I saw the plan for the theater, I knew there was only one screenwriter, film producer and director in the world to make this film for the Alamo Museum – Taylor Sheridan,” Patrick said in a press release. “Over the last decade, Taylor has told the story of the American west – the people, the land, the depth, and the history – in a way no other filmmaker has.”
The movie will be screened in a 4-D theater with “visual effects, sound and physical elements” that will inform Alamo visitors about the 1836 battle, when about 200 Texians led by William B. Travis and James Bowie held off a much larger Mexican force for almost two weeks before they were overrun on March 6.
The Alamo Visitors Center and Museum is scheduled to open in spring 2028.
Sheridan earned an Oscar nomination in 2017 for his script for “Hell or High Water.” With “Yellowstone,” his epic Western series set in Montana, he created an empire. The show ran for five seasons on the Paramount Network and led to a number of spin-offs and sequels, including “1883,” “1923” and the upcoming “Dutton Ranch.” (Some scenes from season two of “1923” were filmed in San Antonio.)
During its run, which ended in 2024, “Yellowstone” was one of the most popular scripted shows on television. It’s season five premiere on Nov. 13, 2022, was watched by more than 12 million people.
Anecdotally, at least, the series was very popular with conservatives like Patrick. Though Sheridan told The Atlantic in a 2022 interview that he didn’t understand its reputation as a red-state show.
“The show’s talking about the displacement of Native Americans and… about corporate greed and the gentrification of the West, and land-grabbing,” he told the magazine. “That’s a red-state show?”
The Alamo, of course, belongs to all of Texas, and Sheridan is eager to document its most famous 13 days.
“The Alamo is the very bedrock Texas was founded upon,” he said in the press release announcing the project. “To chronicle the sacrifice made by the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives defending the Alamo is an honor I eagerly accept.”
Sheridan works out of a Fort Worth film production campus called SGS Studios that he co-owns with Ross Perot Jr.
One of the studio’s goals, according to its website, is to maximize film incentives from the state. The Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program provides grants to TV, film and other projects based on the amount of money they spend in the state.
According to Dallas Morning News reports, Sheridan lobbied Patrick and the Texas Legislature to pour more money into its film incentives. And his shows were expected to receive $67 million in rebates from the state in 2024-25.