STACK #250 August 2025

MOVIE FEATURE

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If you’re a fan of Taylor Sheridan’s gritty, character-driven dramas like Yellowstone , 1883 , or Mayor of Kingstown , then Landman is a must-watch. Words Gill Pringle S tarring Oscar-winner Billy Bob Thornton, the series drills into the high-stakes, high-pressure world SLICK OPERATOR GENRE: Drama RUN TIME: Series

“Taylor’s a man’s man and all this kind of stuff, but he’s actually a very sensitive guy and writes about the human condition and interpersonal relationships,” Thornton says. “What’s great about Landman is that it doesn’t just show the people who work in the oil business - it’s also about the people who are affected by the oil business. And for the folks who do these jobs, it’s like being off at war. I mean, the quality of life is very difficult, you don’t see family for long stretches. “And that’s what I like about this lens that we're seeing this story through. It’s very human-based. Also, Taylor knows how to write humour into very heavy drama,” says Thornton, 70, who takes umbrage at the notion that he mostly plays bad guys. “It’s a common misconception that I play bad guys, you know? If you really look at my career, I think maybe because some of the bad guys that I’ve played were iconic, like the guy in Fargo or something like that, people assume that I’ve played a lot of bad guys. But when you really look at it, I haven’t played that many.” Always up for a challenge, he adds, everybody has dark thoughts, everybody has beautiful thoughts, everybody has insecurity, everybody has anger... And so you have to show every side of a person. If you don’t make them a human, then who’s interested in watching it?” and you’re a guy, they’re like your buddies. I mean, you’re protective of them, but when they’re little and they climb up on something and they fall and cut their lip, it’s like ‘Dude, quit climbing up the ladder’. “But when your daughter does the same thing, you instantly rush over, grab her around the waist, take her off the ladder, and say, “You want to play someone who’s a bit ambiguous, because I’m sure Ask him if he brings his own experience of parenting four kids to his Landman role he says, “Absolutely. When you have sons

of the West Texas oil industry. Set in the Permian Basin, Texas - one of the most productive oil fields in the world - Landman follows the lives of the roughnecks and wildcat billionaires who make, and lose, fortunes overnight.

As oil company crisis manager Tommy Norris, Thornton is the epitome of the “hard-living, world-weary fixer”. If he’s not putting out fires for Jon Hamm’s oil boss - literally

Billy BobThornton

DYK?

Recalling his conversation with Sheridan after he agreed to do a small cameo for 1883 , Thornton says, “He said, ‘I need you to come down for two days. All I need you to do is come kill everybody in the saloon and leave’. And I said, ‘OK, I’ve done that before, I’ll do it’.” But he was taken by surprise

Hollywood director Billy Wilder once told Billy Bob

- then he’s juggling his over-sexed ex-wife (Ali Larter) and their two wild young adult kids. Based on the 11-part podcast Boomtown , Landman is a modern-day

Thornton that he was too ugly to be an actor and suggested he write a movie for himself to make the most of his imperfect features. Several

years later, Thornton won a 'Best Screenplay' Oscar for Sling Blade .

‘Honey, please don’t do that’. So Bella, my [youngest] daughter, who is the centre of my universe, gave me everything I needed in order to play a protective father in this.”

tale of fortune-seeking in the world of oil rigs. An upstairs/ downstairs story, if you like, of the

when the filmmaker took him aside, telling him how he was writing

Landman for him. He appreciated that Sheridan was proposing to write a nuanced character for him to get his teeth into - backed by a stellar supporting cast including Demi Moore, Michael Peña, and Andy Garcia.

folk fuelling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy, and our geopolitics. If it seems like Thornton was made for the role, then that is actually a fact.

• Landman Season 1 is out Aug 20

WELCOME TO SHERIDAN’S WORLD:

Yellowstone, Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, Lawman: Bass Reeves, Lioness

30 AUGUST 2025

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