\n\tDavid Ellison was in an upbeat mood.<\/p>\n
\n\tParamount\u2019s new owner was on a private jet with his top executive team \u2014 including president Jeff Shell and Paramount Pictures co-chairs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein \u2014 and had just sat down with the man who is the centerpiece of Paramount\u2019s TV content strategy: Taylor Sheridan<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tThe studio brass had flown to Texas to court Sheridan on his sprawling ranch shortly after the merger between Skydance Media and Paramount Global was finalized in August. Their objective was clear: Make Taylor Sheridan feel as if he\u2019s in good hands with this new leadership group. They thought the meeting went well. A source who spoke with one of the execs in attendance joked that the Paramount brass \u201ccouldn\u2019t keep up with him\u201d as the drinks flowed while Sheridan uncorked bottles.<\/p>\n \n\tYet on Sunday, the news broke that Sheridan was jumping ship to NBCUniversal for a deal worth as much as $1 billion \u2014 depending on Sheridan\u2019s creative output during a five-year contract starting in 2029. He\u2019ll also have the opportunity to make films \u201cof all sizes\u201d with NBCU starting next year. <\/p>\n \n\tThe seismic poach has sent the industry scrambling to answer a simple question: How did Paramount, the studio with the deepest pockets that recently inked massive, long-term agreements with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and a\u00a0film and TV deal <\/a>with the Duffer brothers, fail to lock up one of the industry\u2019s biggest talents with an arguably perfect track record? But perhaps a better question is: How much did Paramount actually want to keep him?<\/p>\n \n\tFrom Sheridan\u2019s perspective, the partnership was rocky even before the merger. The writer-producer-director had been frustrated by Paramount\u2019s film division, which had rejected a feature script of his titled Capture the Flag. And when Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav courted Sheridan this year by offering to dust off his action-thriller script F.A.S.T., Sheridan ran into a roadblock when Paramount initially refused to let the rival studio make the film. Paramount wanted a 50\/50 split, sources say, and were rebuffed, though it eventually let the film go forward (1923 star Brandon Sklenar was cast in the lead, which also had to sting Paramount a bit).<\/p>\n \n\tOnce the studio changed hands, Paramount didn\u2019t give Sheridan a heads-up that it signed Nicole Kidman for a new series that could, in theory, conflict with her shooting schedule for his drama Lioness. Yellowstone famously fell behind partly due to star Kevin Costner committing to another project, so Sheridan has some history with being dealt major headaches with talent schedule conflicts. A source familiar with the situation says Paramount had planned to speak with Sheridan regarding the Kidman announcement but that Sheridan first learned about it through a dinner with they actress before they had the chance \u2014 but even that reasoning speaks to the studio not quite prioritizing its relationship with Sheridan.<\/p>\n \n\tIn addition, Sheridan bristled at criticisms of his spending (particularly on Lioness, which received a belated \u2014 and what now looks like a last-ditch effort to salvage the relationship \u2014 third-season renewal a few weeks back).<\/p>\n \n\tAnd then there was that meeting between Sheridan and a crew of Paramount executives, a bombardment-of-brass tactic that felt cumbersome for the creative. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a bad meeting,\u201d says a source in Sheridan\u2019s orbit. \u201cThey should\u2019ve come with three people \u2014 Ellison and two others and then sat down and really tried to connect with Taylor. That would\u2019ve meant a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOne insider pushed back on the idea that the executive team effort was Paramount\u2019s idea, noting that 101 Studios CEO David Glasser set the guest list. (Paramount, NBCUniversal, 101 Studios and Sheridan had no comment for this story.)<\/p>\n \n\tEither way, somebody else had been courting Sheridan with a more low-key style: NBCUniversal\u2019s savvy entertainment & studios boss Donna Langley, who had multiple meetings with the hitmaker over the summer and who gradually became The Sheridan Whisperer. Initially, Langley approached Sheridan about a film deal, but the conversation expanded to include television and streaming in August when it became clear he was having serious doubts about reupping his TV deal with the new Paramount.<\/p>\n \n\tWhen a contract is worth $1 billion, it may seem foolish to think Sheridan\u2019s decision might have been more personal than financial. But Sheridan values his independence to a rather enormous degree (The Hollywood Reporter\u2018s cover story on Sheridan two years ago was titled, \u201cTaylor Sheridan Does Whatever He Wants<\/a>,\u201d and that declaration has aged rather well). So it seems rather possible that Sheridan being put off by the Paramount team\u2019s approach could have been a significant factor. <\/p>\n