'Yellowstone' showrunner sounds off on writers' room amid WGA strike

The Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan has given legs to the Paramount+ series with his strong script, which broke the charts.

However, the filmmaker suggested the writers' room may be unable to achieve that success.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter said he wanted to be in the driving seat on his project's vision, not the writers' room.

"The freedom of the artist to create must be unfettered," the 53-year-old added.

"If they tell me, 'You're going to have to write a check for $540,000 to four people to sit in a room that you never have to meet,' then that's between the studio and the guild. But if I have to check in creatively with others for a story I've wholly built in my brain, that would probably be the end of me telling TV stories."

The Yellowstone showrunner added that originally he wanted to be in the overseeing position rather than head-on leading the project.

However, the plan did not materialize. "[I thought] I would write, cast and direct the pilots, and then we would bring in someone as showrunner to run a writers' room, and I could check in and guide them. That plan failed," Sheridan continued. "There were some things that none of us foresaw."

All of the hit Western drama franchise episodes were penned by Sheridan, including prequels 1883 and 1923.

"If you don't grow up in this [ranching] world, and if you're not a history fanatic, how do you write '1883'?" Sheridan asked. "How does a room do that? It doesn't."