Donna Langley reveals how she lured Taylor Sheridan away from Paramount

NBCUniversal Entertainment chairwoman Donna Langley is detailing the strategy behind one of the industry's biggest recent talent coups, convincing Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan to leave Paramount after roughly a decade at the studio. 

Speaking at Bloomberg's Screentime conference on Thursday, Langley explained that she identified an opening created by instability at Paramount, widely understood to stem from the studio's turbulent, yearlong merger process with Warner Bros. Discovery. 

"There's just a moment to kind of look around the marketplace and see if there's a competitive advantage," Langley said.

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Langley revealed that her pitch centered specifically on film rather than television, correctly identifying a weak point in Sheridan's existing Paramount arrangement. 

"Where I started talking to Taylor was about film, because I knew that he had a film deal at Paramount, but it was a first look deal and didn't have as many teeth to it as his television deal," she said. 

According to prior reporting, Langley and NBCUniversal ultimately secured Sheridan with a package reportedly worth more than $1 billion spanning both television and film, personally traveling to meet with him at his Texas ranch as part of the courtship, even as Warner Bros. Discovery's David Zaslav made a competing approach. 

Sheridan's new film deal takes effect in 2026, with his television agreement following once his existing Paramount commitments wrap in 2028.

Universal is currently enjoying a record-breaking year at the box office, boosted by the strong performance of The Odyssey, which has become the studio's highest-grossing film of all time, alongside the surprise success of Obsession. 

Asked which filmmaker she's still hoping to bring into the Universal fold, Langley named one target in particular, "There are so many, but I think Ryan Coogler."

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