Billy Bob Thornton plays a crisis manager for an oil company in the upcoming Paramount+ series.
Sorry, folks, but we still haven’t heard anything about a start date for filming the “final cycle” of Season 5 Yellowstone episodes that are supposed to kick off in November 2024 on Paramount Network.
On the other hand, we do know that the decision-makers at CBS obviously are pleased with the success they’ve had with edited-for-broadcast-TV reruns of the Taylor Sheridan-produced drama. Season 2 episodes concluded Dec. 3, but the series will return to CBS on Sunday evenings Jan. 14, with three back-to-back Season 3 episodes set to start at 7 pm ET.
Meanwhile, Sheridan has already started pre-production for his next Paramount+ project: Landman, a contemporary drama starring Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris, crisis manager for an oil company. (Thornton, pictured above, also had a brief but memorable supporting role in Sheridan’s 1883.) Co-stars include Michelle Randolph of Sheridan’s 1923, who’ll play Ainsley Norris, Tommy’s wild and strong-willed 17-year-old daughter, and Jacob Lofland (12 Mighty Orphans) as Cooper Norris, who’s still accustoming himself to the demanding work in the oil and gas fields of West Texas.
What’s it all about? According to the Deadline showbiz website: “Landman is set in the proverbial boomtowns of West Texas and is a modern-day tale of fortune-seeking in the world of oil rigs. The series is an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics.” Co-created by Sheridan and Christian Wallace, the show is based on the Texas Monthly podcast Boomtown, which Wallace wrote and hosted, and scheduled to premiere sometime in 2024.
Authenticity appears to be the keynote here: The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that talent agency Legacy Casting “is putting out a call for real-life oil and gas workers, or roughnecks, to appear in the show. At the moment, Legacy is specifically looking for oilfield workers with experience working on a rig. Those who have other oilfield experience can still apply to be cast in the show, when those applications open early next year.”
