Joe R. Lansdale’s recently released short story Christmas With the Dead is being adapted into a feature film, and the official website and some concept art just went up.
Brian James Fitzpatrick will direct the feature which will star Damian Maffei, Brad Maule, and Kasey Lansdale (yes, daughter of Joe). They released this teaser art today, which fits in with the short story’s synopsis.
“It was a foolish thing to do, and Calvin had not bothered with it the past two years, not since the death of his wife and child. But this year he decided, quite suddenly, that tomorrow was Christmas Eve. And zombies be damned, the lights and decorations are going up…”
Nothing terribly exciting but this is some very early teaser art- the film won’t even start shooting till June. It may not seem like a very Christmasy time of year to shoot the film but it’s going to be shot in Lansdale’s hometown of Nacogoches, Texas, which is not exactly known as a winter wonderland.
Anyone attending the I -Con Convention on April 15th will be able to see the author and actors in a Q&A and even possibly get a zombie makeover from the film’s FX artist Marcus Koch.
In other exciting Joe R. Lansdale news, he’s just released a new Hap and Leonard novella called Hyenas and has a new novel featuring his famous duo hitting next month entitled Devil Red. Do yourself a favor and pick up anything and everything that this man has written- you’ll be better for it.