Joe Lansdale to make film of his Xmas zombie tale

Joe Lansdale is one of Texas' finest writers (here's an interview I did with him in 2009, and he's got a little cred in the movie biz as well after Don Coscarelli made his short story "Bubba Hotep" into a film of the same name a few years ago. Now Lansdale is beating the filmmakers to the punch. His son Keith Lansdale is adapting Joe's about-to-be-released story "Christmas with the Dead" for the big screen. Joe will executive produce and they'll do it all in his hometown of Nacogdoches in June with students from Stephen F. Austin State University assisting.

Here's the story: "“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…”