Natalie Portman in a still from Jane Got a Gun.The Weinstein Company
Perhaps it’s a sign of the times that the Western genre has had such a massive resurgence. Many American viewers seem to be yearning for a bygone era, and shows like Taylor Sheridan‘s Yellowstone deliver that nostalgia. Released in 2018, Yellowstone launched a new wave of interest in Westerns, led by its own spin-offs and a string of lavishly produced movies and shows from other studios. The decade leading up to Yellowstone‘s release was rather quiet on the Western front, although there were a handful of movies that managed to break through. They were invariably directed by the Coen Brothers or Quentin Tarantino. However, another critically acclaimed filmmaker was on the verge of making a Western before a decision she made fueled one of the biggest production controversies of the past couple of decades.
In 2012, Natalie Portman boarded the project along with director Lynne Ramsay. The movie in question was based on a Black List script by Brian Duffield. In the subsequent years, Joel Edgerton, Jude Law, and Michael Fassbender signed on to play supporting roles. The movie was set to be shot by the renowned cinematographer Darius Khondji, who worked with David Fincher on Se7en and more recently with Josh Safdie on Marty Supreme. However, on the day that filming was supposed to begin, Ramsay failed to show up on set. It was announced that she had quit the production, which prompted Khondji and Law to back out as well. Gavin O’Connor was hired as Ramsay’s replacement, with Portman’s Star Wars co-star Ewan McGregor stepping in to play the role vacated by Law.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
10
When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
Natalie Portman’s Western Has a Notorious Production History
The movie in question, Jane Got a Gun, was eventually released in 2016 after numerous delays. It received mixed reviews and underperformed at the box office. Jane Got a Gun is now sitting at a 42% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads, “Jane Got a Gun flounders between campy Western and hard-hitting revisionist take on the genre, leaving Natalie Portman’s committed performance stranded in the dust.” The movie grossed only $3.8 million worldwide against a reported budget of $25 million. However, according to FlixPatrol, it was resurrected by fans this week, more than a decade after its disastrous theatrical run. Jane Got a Gun emerged as one of the most-watched movies on the global HBO Max chart. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
