Joe R. Lansdale's Hap and Leonard series coming to Sundance TV

by Steve Newton on November 10th, 2014 at 3:55 PM

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Just heard some great news in a tweet from one of my fave authors, hardboiled Texas mystery/suspense ace Joe R. Lansdale. He's the guy who wrote the story that became one of my fave all-time horror flicks, Bubba Ho-Tep.

Turns out two of my fave characters of his--Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, from the Hap and Leonard books--are coming to the small screen next year.

Can I get a "Fvckin-AAA!"

Sundance TV--which is available on cable in Canada via Corus Entertainment--announced today it has greenlit six one-hour episodes of the original series Hap and Leonard, which will begin shooting this year and air in early 2016. Here's some promo material from today's press release:

"The project is based on the rollicking Joe Lansdale Southern noir book series about an unlikely pair of best friends and martial arts experts who struggle through misadventure, to stay on the right side of the law in 1980’s East Texas. Hap Collins is a white working class laborer who spent time in federal prison as a young man for refusing to be drafted into the military and serve in the Vietnam War. Now In his late thirties, he is just barely making ends meet picking roses on an East Texas plantation.
"His colleague and lifelong best friend is Leonard Pine, a six-foot five, gay, black Vietnam vet with anger issues. Leonard was raised by his uncle who shunned him after learning he was gay, leaving Hap as his only support in the not-so-progressive rural South. By turns funny and shocking, Hap and Leonard provides an unpredictable and side-eyed look into race, class and friendship."

The series is created by director-writer Jim Mickle and writer Nick Damici, who partnered on the film adaptation of Lansdale’s Cold in July. I saw that movie a few weeks ago and it kicked ass. Don Johnson's best role since Machete.

Lansdale will serve as a co-executive producer.