Taylor Sheridan's newest Western drama, Landman, gave a first look of its leads Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore, Jon Hamm and Ali Larter on Vanity Fair.
Sheridan based Landman on Christian Wallace's Boomtown, a podcast about big oil based in the Permian Basin. It's the highest producing oil field in the US, located in western Texas.
Thornton plays Tommy Norris, a crisis executive at an oil company. His job is to identify possible threats, develop the company's crisis management plan and make sure that it runs smoothly — a necessity for the industry. Hamm plays oil industry titan Monty Miller, who has a long personal and professional relationship with Tommy. Moore plays Cami, Monty's strategic wife. Larter plays Tommy's ex-wife.
Billy Bob Thornton reunites with Taylor Sheridan in Landman
Landman reunites Thornton with Sheridan, having been in one episode of the Yellowstone prequel miniseries 1883 as Marshal Jim Courtright. The Fargo star said the production was grueling, which pushed the team to their limits.
“There were days when I thought, not only me, but everybody on the crew was going to pass out. It was so hot some days, and we're shooting out at these oil pumpjacks. Do you know what caliche is? We're on these caliche roads with rocks in them, and I'm wearing cowboy boots, running to the truck. It's a hundred degrees with a hundred percent humidity. Jesus Christ, I'm in my 60s! This just sucks. My God, there were days when it was pretty hard. This was probably the hardest thing I ever did,” he told the publication.
However, despite the less-than-ideal conditions, the Academy Award winner found working with Sheridan again rewarding. The Oscar nominated and prolific writer has been able to attract A-list actors due to his high-intensity dialogue and incredibly memorable characters.
Moore agreed to be on the show for multiple season based mostly on Sheridan's track record of critically acclaimed hit shows such as the Yellowstone franchise, including its spinoffs 1883 (with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill) and 1923 (with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren), as well as his other series Tulsa King (Sylvester Stallone), Mayor of Kingstown (Jeremy Renner), Lawmen: Bass Reeves (Oyelowo) and Lioness (Nicole Kidman and Zoe Saldaña).
Look, Ma, no scripts!
“Taylor works in a very unique way, and every actor that he meets with—we basically sit down, we hear what he's looking to do, where he's looking to go, and we have to say yes or no based on that. There's no script,” Moore said.
“He thinks way ahead. He's thinking through not just one season. He's thinking through an epic story,” she added.
While the oil industry — especially working in the fields — is still mostly filled with men, the actress' character highlights where the women play important roles elsewhere. Moore's character, Cami, is described as the power behind the power of Hamm's character Monty. He started out as an oil speculator with Tommy. Monty hit it big while Tommy didn't. Now Tommy works for Monty's company.
“Cami is somebody who is not involved in the business but is running their entire life. They're a couple that built this entire empire and family together,” Moore explained.
While most oil men are portrayed on TV like villainous J.R. Ewing in the iconic '80s series Dallas, Hamm's Monty Miller tries his best to actually be a good guy. It's a departure from the morally ambiguous Don Draper that the actor famously played.
“Jon said to me at one point, ‘I think this might be the first time I'm playing a character who's actually in a good relationship, where they actually have real love, commitment, and affection,” the actress said.
No morally grey heroes in Landman?
“Her focus is her family and their social existence. It's the ups and downs of keeping him grounded, healthy, and safe,” she added.
For Thornton, Tommy's biggest draw to him was the chance to play a down-on-his luck hero with a complicated life all while trying to hold together his billionaire friend's empire.
“Taylor said to me one day, ‘When you go over to this house and you think: I could have had this — but it went a different direction,” he said.
“I'm a fixer and a foreman. Even though I work with the head guy, I also work very closely with the people out in the field. I check the wells every day, get the information to give him, I deal with the landowners, and if something happens on that land, if there's an accident on the rig, I've got to solve that problem and go deal with the lawyers,” the actor explained.
It's very often hard and dirty work, being a landman, which is what Tommy is. However, his ex-wife Angela, played by Larter, lives in a very different world. Having long been divorced and since remarried, she reconnects with Tommy when their adult son Cooper (Jacob Lofland) ends up working in the fields.
“Her son has pulled away from her and she's trying to find her way back into his life,” Larter said. Angela blames the oil business, her ex's obsessive dedication to it and the bottle for the dissolution of their marriage.
“She's trying to put her family back together and doesn't always do it in all the best of ways. She loves to wreak havoc in her ex's life. Everything she does is colorful and big and passionate and full of fire and joy and playfulness,” she added.
A kind of flashy elegance?
Comparing Angela and Cami, Larter said that they are polar opposites.
“Demi plays a real oil heiress, and there's an elegance to that. Angela is more like a jet-setter traveling the world who is much more splashy and sexy and loud,” the actress explained.
Moore further elaborates that their characters show the contrast between having everything and having nothing to lose.
“Cami and Monty have done it. They've reached the dream. But it's one thing to get there — it's another to keep it. And I think Billy's character is the one who has to do all the dirty work. Billy and Ali, their dynamic is just going to be off-the charts fantastic and kind of juicy,” she continued.
Landman doesn't have a release date yet, but it's slated to premiere sometime in 2025 on Paramount+. The series will be Sheridan's eighth with the streaming platform. His flagship series, Yellowstone, will make its final bow with part two of its fifth and final season on Nov. 10, without the Dutton patriarch played by Kevin Costner.
However, when one ranch door closes, another one opens. While details haven't been announced yet, there are currently three planned Yellowstone spinoffs: Jimmy's (Jefferson White) sequel series 6666, the continuation of the Dutton children's story in 2024 and what may be another prequel that may star Matthew McConaughey.
In the meantime, it looks like Landman will be a worthy addition to Sheridan's Western drama empire. It will be fascinating to see Thornton and Hamm play against each other as erstwhile friends who are now boss and employee. Equally fascinating is how Moore's elegant Cami and Larter's flashy Angela will get along. And then you put all four of them together, combined with their histories, and you've got a primetime drama of epic proportions.
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