Taylor Sheridan continues to grow his empire and landgrab over at Paramount+. The writer/director/producer/showrunner, who is quickly becoming the Shonda Rhimes of Paramount’s streaming service, has yet another series in the works. This one, titled “Kansas City,” is a mob series that will star Sylvester Stallone and is co-created by Terence Winter, the co-creator of HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” “Vinyl,” and writer of Martin Scorsese’s “Wolf Of Wall Street.”
While Stallone has appeared on television shows in the past, “Police Story” and “Kojak,” in the 1970s and more recently appearing on “This Is Us,” this new series will be the “Rocky” actors first foray into television as the lead.
According to Deadline, “Kansas City” follows a New York City Italian mobster (Stallone), forced to relocate to the most unlikely of places—Kansas City, Missouri. Set in the present-day, legendary mobster Sal (Stallone) is faced with the startling task of reestablishing his Italian mafia family to the modernized, straight-shooting town of Kansas City. There, Sal encounters surprising and unsuspecting characters who follow him along his unconventional path to power.
A major filmmaking workhorse, Sheridan currently has two shows on TV, with one more scheduled to debut soon. Sheridan is the writer/director/producer behind “Yellowstone,” the most popular show on cable television, recently surpassing “The Walking Dead” in ratings in popularity. Sheridan also recently launched the Jeremy Renner starring “Mayor Of Kingstown” on Paramount+ and his “Yellowstone” Western prequel series “1883,” debuts on the streaming series December 19, 2021. “Kansas City
Winter is a major Scorsese collaborator, having showrun all his recent series efforts, including the aforementioned “Boardwalk Empire” and “Vinyl.” Winter was going to serve as showrunner of the ‘Gotham PD’ Batman spin-off series but departed over creative differences. That’s undoubtedly freed him up to take the reins on this new series with Sheridan, who also directed the Warner Bros. /HBO Max feature film “Those Who Wish Me Dead,” starring Angelina Jolie this year (this guy doesn’t sleep). Sheridan is also known for writing “Sicario,” the Academy Award-nominated Best Picture “Hell or High Water,” and writing and directing “Wind River.”
Winter will take point on “Kansas City” as the showrunner and will run the writer’s room which makes sense, given that one man can only do so much on his own. But Sheridan has already written the entirety of season four of “Yellowstone,” most of “Mayor Of Kingstown” (including directing its pilot), and probably will have written a ton of “1883.”