Taylor Sheridan

Jolie stars in this fiery thriller from director Taylor Sheridan.

In this sequel to the hit crime thriller, an American CIA agent takes aim at the most powerful drug cartels on the planet.

In the world of filmmaking, one day you are in, and the next you are out. Such has definitely been the case for Disney‘s and Lucasfilm‘s Star Wars sequels and spin-offs, which have both gone through a bit of an identity crisis these past few months. With Colin Trevorrow and Lucasfilm parting ways on Star Wars: Episode IX, we thought to take it upon ourselves to find a suitable replacement for the final movie in the modern trilogy.

Earlier this year, Taylor Sheridan added “Oscar nominee” to his resume. The actor-turned-screenwriter-turned-director quickly made a name for himself with Sicario, then wooed the Academy with last summer’s surprise critical hit and Best Original Screenplay nominee Hell or High Water. This year Sheridan returns with his third crime drama, Wind River, directing from his own script for the first time.

If you’re lucky enough to live in a major movie market like New York or Los Angeles, you may have plans this weekend to see Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River, the latest entry in Sheridan’s ouevre of neo-westerns like Sicario and Hell or High Water. Our own review of Wind River called the film impressive-looking - if not a little familiar - and a project that bodes well for the future of Sheridan as a filmmaker. And while Sheridan may be the master at the contemporary western, it appears the writer-director also has a more traditional take in mind, working on a project with Wind River star Jeremy Renner about America’s most infamous gunslinger.

In Taylor Sheridan’s snowy western Wind River, Jeremy Renner plays a quiet divorcee and grieving father who spends his days tracking game on the titular Wyoming reservation. Renner’s Cory Lambert is one of the (if not the) only white man on the land, but his Native American ex-wife (Julia Jones) and young son give him a sense of connection and community to their people. After the body of a young Native American woman is found on the middle of a snowy hillside, it reminds Cory of a similar loss he suffered years ago. Cory, along with FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) and the local sheriff (Graham Greene), they trio attempt to solve the murder mystery.

In Wind River, a Native American woman’s dead body is found frozen in the snow. The latest crime drama from Sicario and Hell or High Water screenwriter Taylor Sheridan, also working behind the camera this time around, follows Elizabeth Olsen’s FBI agent attempting to solve a wintry murder with the help of Jeremy Renner’s Cory Lambert, a local animal tracker.

After Logan’s smashing success, Sony has put director James Mangold at the helm of their remake of Disorder, a French thriller that starred Matthias Schoenaerts as a PTSD-afflicted ex-solder hired to protect the family of a wealthy businessman while he’s out of town.

From the ranks of the Sons of Anarchy cast, Taylor Sheridan has emerged as one of the buzziest screenwriters working today. He took Cannes by storm and scored an intelligent sleeper hit with Sicario, his south-of-the-border drug war drama. He made it to the Oscars with another yarn of crime and the solemn-faced folks working to stop it, the timely Western standoff Hell or High Water. And now, the accomplished writer has delivered another potboiler set on the grand expanses of the American plains, with a sweetened deal: he’ll get the chance to prove himself as a filmmaker, too, taking his debut directorial credit on Wind River.

It’s been a big week for Taylor Sheridan: His directorial debut, Wind River, just premiered at Sundance, and his screenplay for the western crime drama Hell or High Water received an Oscar nomination. Up next, Sheridan is returning to the world of Sicario with Soldado, a follow-up to Denis Villeneuve’s nerve-wracking 2015 thriller with Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin reprising their roles as dubious (to put it mildly) government agents. Plot details for Soldado have thus far been scarce, but Sheridan has finally shed some light on what Del Toro and Brolin’s characters will be up to in the new film.