Yellowstone Creator Taylor Sheridan Joins Bidding War for Classic Horror Movie Franchise

Taylor Sheridan is best known for creating a slew of original programming for Paramount. However, that doesn’t mean that the Yellowstone creator isn’t interested in getting his hands on some iconic IP.

According to Deadline, Sheridan is reportedly interested in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre property. However, he’ll have some hefty competition for the rights to the Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel-created horror franchise, which includes film, TV, live events, and games, as around half a dozen studios and/or streamers are also vying for the property. Verve, the company holding the rights to the IP since 2017, is behind the forthcoming bidding war, which will begin Monday, June 9. At this time, Sheridan, who was raised in Texas, would only serve as a producer on a future Texas Chainsaw Massacre project.

Sheridan has become a major player in Hollywood thanks to his neo-Western drama series Yellowstone, which ran for five seasons and 53 episodes between 2018 and 2024. The success of the Paramount Network original show led to the creation of a whole franchise that currently consists of two prequels — 1883 and 1923 — and three forthcoming sequel spinoffs — The Madison, Y: Marshalls, and an untitled series following Cole Hauser’s Rip and Kelly Reilly’s Beth Dutton. He has also created several other popular series for Paramount+, including the Sylvester Stallone-led Tulsa King and the Billy Bob Thornton-starring Landman, the latter of which is also set in Texas.

Who Else Is Interested in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre Rights?

Several other notable names are also eyeing the Texas Chainsaw Massacre IP, with them set to pitch Verve and the rights holders on their vision for notorious cannibalistic killer Leatherface. First is Oz Perkins, whose best-known movies include Longlegs and The Monkey. He has teamed with The Strangers director Bryan Bertino for a pitch that they would co-write together, with the latter also helming this particular version of Texas Chainsaw that would only happen if NEON won the rights.

Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw is also interested in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but only in a producing capacity. Since Monkeypaw has a production deal at Universal, the project would likely end up at that studio should their pitch emerge victorious. As previously reported back in March, Strange Darling‘s J.T. Mollner and A Minecraft Movie and Weapons producer Roy Lee are also vying for the rights, in collaboration with A24 and Glen Powell. This group reportedly has a pitch that would bring Texas Chainsaw to the small screen. Additionally, Lee, on his own, has a feature film pitch for the franchise that would be set up at Netflix.

With the successful reboots of Halloween in 2018, Scream in 2022, and Final Destination in 2025, there’s major interest within Hollywood in giving that level of interest, budget, and care to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, which began with the original back in 1974. After the movie went on to gross over $30 million off a $140 thousand budget, a franchise was born that currently consists of eight further movies, three video games, and several comics.

The original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is currently streaming on Prime Video.