Night of the Cooters: George R.R. Martin, Vincent D’Onofrio sci-fi short

Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, Bubba Ho-tep author Joe Lansdale, and the great character actor Vincent D’Onofrio have teamed up for a “labor of love” that sounds like it’s going to result in something that will be a lot of fun: a short sci-fi film based on Howard Waldrop’s 1987 short story Night of the Cooters. (You can pick up a copy of Waldrop’s short story collection HERE.)

Martin took to his blog to announce that principal photography has wrapped on the short film, which is expected to have a running time in the range of 20 or 30 minutes. Lansdale wrote the screenplay adaptation, while D’Onofrio directed and stars as Sheriff Lindley. Night of the Cooters is

inspired by H.G. Wells and War of the Worlds, and is all about the time the Martians invaded Pachuco, Texas.

D’Onofrio is joined in the cast by Hopper Penn as Sweets, Harrison Page as Luther, Martin Sensmeier as Leo Smith, Cristin McCleary as Atkins, Elias Gallegos as DeSpain, Luce Rains as Skip, Jazzy Kim O’Brien as Lil’ Chisum, and Darius Eteeyan as Billy Strother.

Trioscope Studios will be providing the cooters special effects.

Night of the Cooters was produced by D’Onofrio, Lansdale, Justin Duval, Joe Dean, Taylor Church, Martin Sensmeier, L.C. Crowly, Greg Jonkajtys, Elias Gallegos, Lenore Gallegos, Amy Filbeck, and Howard Waldrop himself. Martin produced as well, but is considering taking the credit of “The Big Cooter”.

Martin wrote,

We shot everything on green screen, so the post production process is going to be a lengthy one. The ball has now been passed to our friends at Trioscope, who will supply the backgrounds and special effects. We are thinking the final cut won’t be ready until early next year. And once the film is complete… well, alas, I doubt it will be showing at a multiplex near you. It’s a short film, as I said, and shorts just don’t get the distribution of full-length features. They hardly get any distribution at all, sad to say. I expect we will enter COOTERS in some film festivals here and there. Maybe some streamer will pick it up. Maybe we can release it on DVD or Blu-Ray. Maybe we can make a few more Waldrop movies and assemble them all into an anthology of sorts, like CREEPSHOW or TWILIGHT ZONE. One thing I can promise: we will be having a premiere somewhere down the line at the Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe.

However it makes its way out into the world, I’m looking forward to seeing Night of the Cooters.