Dwight “The General” Manfredi (Sylvester Stallone) just got out of jail after 25 years.
And his reception was not what he was expecting.
“He’s expecting to be rewarded for being a good soldier.
Sylvester Stallone on ‘Tulsa King’.Brian Douglas/Paramount+
“He’s also kind of out of a time capsule.
So he’s really a guy who’s out of time.”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Where did this all start?
Sylvester Stallone on ‘Tulsa King’.Brian Douglas/Paramount+
How did this whole project come about?
TERENCE WINTER:It started with Taylor Sheridan.
He wrote a first draft and came to me.
I read the pilot and said “I’m in” immediately, just absolutely went for it.
So basically I took the ball and ran with it.
So it all came from literally Taylor’s first draft of the script.
So he’s a very different person than he was when he went in.
He’s very smart, very well read.
He’s extremely formidable despite the fact that he’s 75 years old.
And he’s kind of trying to be a better man.
So we throw all that into the mix and it’s this really fun fish-out-of-water dark comedy.
So Sly was already attached when you came on board?
As far as I knew, he was.
It was presented to me as: Here’s a pilot that Taylor wrote.
Sly Stallone is attached.
And I was like, “Where do I sign?”
It just feels right that he’s the latest movie star to embrace TV.
And TV, you’ve got hours and hours and hours to spend with this character.
And you just don’t get to do that in a movie.
And I think for an actor, that’s really appealing.
They get to really dig deep.
He’s also really funny.
It feels like it’s been a minute since we’ve seen Stallone get to flex comedic muscles.
I mean, I remember the first time I sawRocky.
I was like, “Man, this guy.”
It’s a dream come true.
And to get to do something different.
And I think he’s really enthused coming to work every morning.
What is the moving force of the season?
And also, he’s sent out there to stake a claim and send money back home.
So he’s also trying to repair the life that he left and lost back in New York.
So there’s a lot of stuff going on.
It was originally set in Kansas City, which felt too big, too cosmopolitan.
They already have an active mob presence in Kansas City.
So I wanted somewhere that you’d never heard an Italian mafia family have anything to do with.
And there probably could have been other states, but Oklahoma also just felt so American.
I mean, obviously the musical comes to mind.
It just feels like the heart of America.
We said, “What is the most unlikely place you might put this character?”
And certainly Tulsa is; it might as well be Mars.
You mentionedThe SopranosandBoardwalk Empire.
You have built some of the most famous mob stories.
How do you feel like this one differs?
It’s a fish-out-of-water story.
The closest this guy’s ever been to a horse is at the race track.
It’s automatically funny.
It’s two tried and true genres of cinema mixed together.
You got these two worlds.
And he’s sort of slowly acclimating to this new universe that he finds himself in.
So you’re saying this is the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of television?
I hope it’s half as delicious.
Tulsa Kingpremieres Nov. 13 on Paramount+.
