Somewhere along the line, decades after Hollywood adapted S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, Tulsa, Oklahoma fell from onscreen grace as far as story locations go. Chandler Bing took a job in Tulsa during Friends (and his pals were not impressed); terminally hatable Gary from Justified surfaced in a Tulsa airport-hotel convention room as a salesman; Marilyn Manson came to town to play a “Native American” hitman (it didn’t go over well). Tulsa was not a place where exciting things happen in stories, but the tide is turning. Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen made Tulsa ground central for where Doctor Manhattan settled, with squid rain on the scene and everything. Reservation Dogs shot nearby in Muskogee, less than an hour away, and will migrate to some Tulsa locations for Season 2. Now, Sylvester Stallone is starring in Tulsa King.
Yes, you heard that right. This is one of a whole slew of new Paramount+ series for ViacomCBS, which appears to have formally rebranded as Paramount Global. It’s all a little bit confusing, that name game. More to the point, though, here’s how Stallone described his leading role in a clip posted to the Yellowstone Instagram page:
“He’s a lifetime gangster. He took the fall for the bosses and went to prison for 25 years, kept his mouth shut, and now he comes out. Next thing you know, he’s in Tulsa. He has to now start a new life, create a gang. They want him to be an earner. That’s when the fun begins.”
Hey, even non-Yellowstone junkies might be interested in checking out the series, all while Sheridan keeps expanding his Sheridan-verse. He’s got multiple other shows in the works for the streaming service, including another Yellowstone spinoff (in addition to 1883 and the forthcoming 6666) called 1932. Meanwhile, Zoe Saldana will star in Lioness as a badass CIA trainer, and Billy Bob Thornton will pick up the ball with Land Man as a 1980s, Texas-set oil-company man.
According to Wall Street Journal, Stallone’s participation in the Sheridan-verse sprung forth from their first meeting at a Burbank, California equestrian center, where they met while engaging in leisure, not work. So, this is all down to the horses, it seems; and the plan is to do what happened with 1883 by offering a few episodes on cable and then pushing viewers to stream the rest on Paramount+. It seems to be working so far.
(Via Wall Street Journal, Deadline & Yellowstone on Instagram)