Is this a match made in heaven or a fumbling attempt to capitalize on the critical success of Martin Scorsese‘s “Killers Of The Flower Moon“? Deadline reports that “Yellowstone” mastermind Taylor Sheridan won a bidding war to adapt “Empire Of The Summer Moon: Quanah Parker And The Rise And Fall Of The Comanches, The Most Powerful Indian Tribe In American History.” Sheridan’s Bosque Ranch banner outbid everyone else to option S.C. Gwynne‘s 2010 book, and he’ll produce the film with Jenny Wood.
Sheridan also directs the feature, a project he’s had his eye on since Warner Bros. first had the rights to it. “Empire Of The Summer Moon” will be Sheridan’s first film since 2021’s “Those Who Wish Me Dead.” However, given his slew of upcoming TV projects, it’s unclear when he’ll start shooting this one.
For those unfamiliar with Gwynne’s book, the 2010 non-fiction is an exhaustive history of the Comanche people, charting a four-decade struggle between the tribe and white settlers for control over a large swathe of the American West. Comanche riders were legendary for European colonialists, being experts at horseriding, bows, and the lance. Their prowess on the battlefield staved off the aggressive northern expansion of Spain from Mexico and France west of Louisiana, but they were no match for later white settlers and their reliance on firearms.
“Empire Of The Summer Moon” places Quanah, a mixed-race female leader of the Comanche, at its center. Quanah’s mother, Cynthia Ann Parker, was kidnapped by the Comanche when she was 9, and her abduction serves as the narrative model for John Ford‘s genre classic “The Searchers.” But reality veered from fiction in Parker’s case. In real life, Parker was married with a child when she was finally tracked down, and she refused to leave the tribe because she had no recollection of her former life. Quanah then grew up to become arguably the Comanche’s greatest leader, leading several battles of resistance against Texas rangers.
Even if Sheridan doesn’t direct “Empire Of The Summer Moon,” Quanah’s story is in good hands with him. Sheridan’s Four Sixes ranch was originally settled by a friend of Quanah’s, who collected several of the chief’s belongings, including a lance that’s on display in a local museum. Apparently, when Burk Burnett established the ranch in 1870, Quanah told him exactly where to build and hunted and slain a deer to commemorate it, with its antlers still on display in the ranch’s main living room.
And S.W. Gwynne thinks Sheridan is the right choice to helm a film adaptation of his book. “I can’t think of anyone better qualified to bring “Empire of the Summer Moon” to the screen than Taylor Sheridan,” the writer said in a press statement. “He has a deep and nuanced understanding of both the myth and reality of the Old West. I am thrilled that he is undertaking this project.”
But as noted earlier, would “Empire Of The Summer Moon” even be made if not for “Killers Of The Flower Moon”? Scorsese’s picture has prompted a resurgence of interest in American Indigenous history, a topic rife with tragedy, rampant bloodshed, and a legacy of systemic violence, degradation, and disregard of native communities. It’s not a happy piece of American history, and Indigenous people don’t like white storytellers revisiting it without their consent. This makes “Empire Of The Summer Moon” a problematic new project for Sheridan. Fans of the Western genre may respect him, but he’ll almost certainly receive pushback from ancestors of the Comanche and other Indigenous people for utilizing their history for commercial art.
Will Sheridan and Hollywood care as much as Scorsese did on his film to get the Comanche people involved? One hopes he will, given his respect for Quanah. But “Empire Of The Summer Moon” could prove a troubling project for Sheridan to make. Let’s see how development on this film unfolds.
