A movie based on a novel by East Texan Joe R. Lansdale is releasing in theaters on September 6. A Western thriller, The Thicket is about fierce bounty hunter Reginald Jones (Peter Dinklage) who is recruited by a desperate man to track down a ruthless killer known only as Cutthroat Bill (Juliette Lewis). He rallies a band of unlikely heroes, including a grave-digging ex-slave and a street-smart woman-for-hire. Together they embark on a perilous quest to track down Cutthroat Bill that leads them into the deadly “no-man’s-land” known as The Thicket.
Lansdale released the novel with Mulholland Books in September of 2013. The book is set at the dark dawn of the East Texas oil boom. The movie was filmed in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
The Thicket is not his first entry into the world of film.
Bubba Ho-Tep is a short comedy/fantasy/horror mix that released in 2002 and 2003 and won numerous awards at film festivals. It tells the “true” story of what really did become of Elvis Presley. We find Elvis (Bruce Campbell) as an elderly resident in an East Texas rest home, who switched identities with an Elvis impersonator years before his “death,” then missed his chance to switch back.
Elvis teams up with Jack (Ossie Davis), a fellow nursing home resident who thinks that he is actually President John F. Kennedy, and the two valiant old codgers sally forth to battle an evil Egyptian entity who has chosen their long-term care facility as his happy hunting grounds.
Cold in July released in January of 2014 based on Lansdale’s 1989 crime/thriller novel of the same name. A terrified man Richard (Michael Hall) accidentally shoots a burglar inside his house. He is assured by the cop (Nick Damici) that it was purely self defense and the burglar was a wanted felon. Richard, shaken by the experience and not proud of the incident, visits the cemetery on the burglar’s burial day and gets confronted by Ben, a paroled convict and the dead burglar’s dad. Ben indirectly threatens and praises Richard’s family photo, which he saw in the newspaper. The cops can’t arrest Ben as he hasn’t done anything and can’t give Richard official police protection. In a cameo appearance, Lansdale plays the priest at the graveside.
The Hap and Leonard TV series that ran from 2016 to 2018 is based on Lansdale’s book Savage Season, which was first published in 1990. Down on his luck after losing his job, ‘60s activist/ex-con Hap Collins can’t help but listen when his seductive former wife Trudy, for whom he still pines, resurfaces with promises of finding a sunken treasure in the Deep South. Joining the adventure is Hap’s unlikely buddy Leonard Pine, an openly gay-Black Vietnam War vet with a bad temper and little use for Trudy’s feminine wiles. Soon enough, the simple get-rich-quick scheme snowballs into bloody mayhem.
Joe Lansdale is the author of the book “The Thicket,” that is now a movie. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas.
Lansdale was born in Gladewater, Texas, and lives with his wife Karen in Nacogdoches. They are the parents of actress, musician, and publisher Kasey Lansdale, and reporter and screenwriter Keith Lansdale.
He’s written close to 50 novels, including Rusty Puppy, the Edgar-award winning The Bottoms, Sunset and Sawdust, and Leather Maiden. He has received nine Bram Stoker Awards, the American Mystery Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature.
His most recent book release is Sugar on the Bones, his first novel in five years featuring his characters Hap and Leonard.
Find the movie in theaters throughout the country and learn more about Joe Lansdale on joerlansdale.com.