From Boomtown to Landman: Co-creator Christian Wallace talks incredible cast, collaborating with Taylor Sheridan, and more.
Based on Christian Wallace’s 11-part Boomtown podcast, Landman is a modern-day tale of fortune seeking in the world of oil rigs. The series follows both roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy, and our geopolitics.
In this interview, Christian Wallace discusses the incredible Landman cast including Billy Bob Thornton and Ali Larter. He also reveals what it was like collaborating with Taylor Sheridan and how often he was on set. Wallace admits that this is a dream come true for him, as well.
Christian Wallace Talks New Paramount+ Series, Landman
Tessa Smith: How did it feel when you were approached to have your podcast turned into a TV series?
Christian Wallace: Pretty surreal, to be honest. You don’t get a call from Taylor Sheridan to work on something every day. But I’m extremely grateful that I did. The podcast came out five years ago. So it was a rather lengthy process with a pandemic and two strikes involved. But I’m very thankful to be sitting here talking to you now after all that.
Tessa Smith: What was it like collaborating with Taylor Sheridan for Landman?
Christian Wallace: I’ve wanted to work with him since he wrote Hell or High Water. I just knew if I ever had that chance, it would be incredible. And it has been because out of everyone working in the industry right now, I was like, if anyone’s going to turn this podcast into something worthwhile, it’s going to be him. I’m just so glad that it worked out the way it did. And he wrote this incredible series. It worked out the way it should have.
Tessa Smith: Let’s talk about the cast for a second. Billy Bob Thornton, to have him be the star of your show has to be, again, surreal, right?
Christian Wallace: Exactly. I mean, it’s like when things work out the way they should and you just know it in your bones. To have Taylor and then Billy, the first time I met Billy, he was smoking a cigarette next to a dumpster on our first day of shooting. And of course, that’s where you meet Billy Bob Thornton.
He’s one of the guys, and he just embodied that character so well. The humor, the grit, the one liners, you just believe him in that role. Not everyone can pull that off by any means. People can sniff out that inauthenticity, and with Billy, he just nails it.
Tessa Smith: Can we talk about Ali Larter, too?
Christian Wallace: Ali is so good, too. She’s she’s funny. She’s sincere. She has this crazy range of just – she’s a very over the top Texas woman in this show, and she plays it so well .It’s so fun to watch, especially them two together, is really great.
Tessa Smith: How hands on were you in this adaptation of your podcast?
Christian Wallace: Taylor and I talked for two years before he actually started writing it. I would go to set when he was filming 1883, for instance, or go to Fort Worth and spend a couple of days hanging out and just just talking about people and stories, things that I had heard growing up, things I’d come across in my research, things that happened to me, and then he also had his own things that he was bringing to it.
Stories he had heard, dealings he had had directly. So it was very collaborative in some ways. But then, of course, Taylor went off and wrote this thing and he killed it. I’m also really grateful that I got to be on set every single day that we shot. I was there like, well, guys, that pumpjack doesn’t look quite right or whatever.
They were teaching me about film and TV and I was teaching them about the oil field. That exchange was really fun. I feel like I may have come out ahead on that deal. I learned a lot. So anyway, it was very fun. I got to be involved with the props, the costumes, the locations.
I think that some of that, hopefully, gives the show just a little bit more of that texture of authenticity.
Be sure to watch our interviews with the cast of Landman for more Billy Bob Thornton stories, behind the scenes details, and more.
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About Landman
Set in the proverbial boomtowns of West Texas, Landman is a modern-day tale of fortune seeking in the world of oil rigs. Based on the notable 11-part podcast “Boomtown,” the series is an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics.
Landman premieres with two episodes on Sunday, November 17, 2024 exclusively on Paramount+.
Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. She is also a Freelance Writer. Tessa has been in the Entertainment writing business for ten years and is a member of several Critics Associations including the Critics Choice Association and the Greater Western New York Film Critics Association.