Around these parts the acronym F.A.S.T. has come to mean “free, ad-supported television,” but it clearly means something else to Taylor Sheridan. After several years in the TV zone, the writer-director has set a film as his next project, and one that’s actually going to make it to theaters, to boot. The way it happened was extremely complicated.
The Hollywood Reporter shared the news today, reporting that Sheridan will be working with Warner Bros. for the project after spending the last few years with Paramount for the extended Yellowstone universe. The trade reports that “high-level talks” occurred between the two studios and it’s not hard to see why they were needed. Sheridan wrote the screenplay pre-Yellowstone, and Warners, then owned by Time Warner, picked up the film in 2018 with the idea that Chris Pratt would star. But AT&T owned the studio by 2019, at which point they apparently didn’t see a point in releasing a mid-budget movie theatrically, and also found it too expensive to release on the then and future HBO Max. At one point Amazon was interested, but it’s back in Warner hands again.
However, Sheridan’s career also flourished in the intervening years, and he signed an exclusive agreement with Paramount that seemingly benefited both of them greatly. It seemed that making F.A.S.T. with Sheridan in the director’s chair was not going to happen, but Warner Bros. Discovery and David Zaslav made it a priority. The deal and film’s budget are reportedly still being finalized.
So, what is F.A.S.T. actually about? The film will follow a “down on his luck” special forces commando “who is tapped by the DEA to lead a black op strike team against CIA-protected drug dealers in his town.” An April 23, 2027 release date has already been announced.
