Taylor Sheridanthe writer and co-creator of ‘Yellowstone’, has voiced harsh criticism of Marvel films and the executives who oversee modern studio productions. Sheridan articulated his frustrations with contemporary filmmaking practices and contrasted them with an earlier era of Hollywood storytelling.Taylor Sheridan explained his approach to screenwriting and what he believes separates quality storytelling from the shortcuts he sees prevalent in today’s entertainment landscape. His comments specifically targeted the storytelling methods employed by Marvel Studios, the company behind the big movie franchises.
Taylor Sheridan’s Fundamental Storytelling Philosophy
Sheridan described his approach to screenwriting early in his career. “What everyone else was doing was taking shortcuts. Essentially breaking all the basic and fundamental rules of storytelling. Because they couldn’t figure out their story,” he said Sunday on the Bill Simmons Podcast. Instead of following industry trends, Sheridan focused on what others weren’t trying to do in his work.He laid out the basic principle he believes should guide filmmaking. “With a movie, you’re supposed to show me what’s going on. The camera’s supposed to move the story. The dialogue’s supposed to tell me how the people in this world feel about what’s going on or what they hope to do or what they wish they hadn’t done or had done. So if you follow that basic rule from the beginning, no character has ever told me something that Sheridan has told me.”
The impact of executive involvement in creative work
Sheridan described the differences in how creative decisions were made during the earlier period he referenced. “There were no endless rewrites. There were no meetings with executives about tone and mood and all that nonsense,” he said, contrasting past practices with today’s studio operations where multiple layers of approval and review occur.