Yellowstone Creator to Write and Direct Empire of the Summer Moon Adaptation Based on Comanche Leader

Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan has optioned the book Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Power Indian Tribe in American History, by S.C. Gwynne. Sheridan’s production company Bosque Ranch won the right to the book in a competitive bidding war; Sheridan will write, direct, and produce alongside Bosque Ranch’s Jenny Wood. At the time of writing this, it’s not yet confirmed what form the adaptation will take – whether it will be a feature film (or series of films), or some form of TV series (limited or multi-seasonal). 

“I can’t think of anyone better qualified to bring Empire of the Summer Moon to the screen than Taylor Sheridan,” the author S.C. Gwynne said in a statement. “He has a deep and nuanced understanding of both the myth and reality of the Old West. I am thrilled that he is undertaking this project.”

What Is Empire of the Summer Moon About? 

The lengthy synopsis of Empire of the Summer Moon makes it clear why the book is a perfect addition to Tayloer Sheridan’s Yellowstone Empire. Series like 1883 and 1923 have expanded the saga of the Dutton family across the history of the Old West, but the recent release and good reception of Sheridan’s Lawman Bass Reeves series proves that he can successfully tell stories of the Old West outside the Yellowstone Universe – and appeal to wider demographics of viewers with stories featuring protagonists outside of the usual cowboy fantasy. 

That latter point could prove to be very important: Sheridan has already faced criticism from some Native American people – including Golden Globe-winner Lily Gladstone, star of Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, who thinks Yellowstone’s depiction of Native people and their plight is “delusional.” 

Hopefully, Sheridan’s depiction of Empire of the Summer Moon will be more accurate. The book certainly tells a wild story that crosses cultures (via Amazon): 

In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a stunningly vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all.

S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moons pans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.

Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined just how and when the American West opened up… They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. So effective were the Comanches that they forced the creation of the Texas Rangers and account for the advent of the new weapon specifically designed to fight them: the six-gun.

The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne’s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads-a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being.

Against this backdrop Gwynne presents the compelling drama of Cynthia Ann Parker, a lovely nine-year-old girl with cornflower-blue eyes who was kidnapped by Comanches from the far Texas frontier in 1836. She grew to love her captors and became infamous as the “White Squaw” who refused to return until her tragic capture by Texas Rangers in 1860. More famous still was her son Quanah, a warrior who was never defeated and whose guerrilla wars in the Texas Panhandle made him a legend.

Via Deadline