Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: In a competitive situation, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment has acquired Comancheria, a feature spec script by actor Taylor Sheridan. SKE will finance and produce with Film 44, whose principal Peter Berg is eyeing the pic as a potential directing vehicle. Sheridan played a cop on Sons of Anarchy who was killed in one of the many surprising developments in that FX series.

The fact that he has writing talent is another surprise. I’m told that Endgame Entertainment and Focus Features also chased Sheridan’s spec. The plot: two brothers, one an ex-con and the other a divorced father of two kids, face the foreclosure of their family’s West Texas farm. They team for a skillfully-calculated bank robbing spree that puts them on a collision course with two Texas Rangers determined to take them down. Film 44 and SKE previously worked together on Lars and the Real Girl. Sheridan’s repped by Gersh.

SKE wants to move quickly on this. Berg, who launches Battleship shortly, is going to next direct Lone Survivor, the Afghanistan-set Navy SEAL drama that Emmett/Furla will finance and Universal will distribute, with Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch and Ben Foster circling lead roles. Timing could be an issue if they want to get underway sooner and Berg will be part of that decision as producer.