George R.R. Martin's Howard Waldrop short films are delightful and deserve to be seen (Exclusive)

Last month, the 82nd annual World Science Fiction Convention — also known as Worldcon — was held in Glasgow, Scotland. Worldcon is a gathering place for sci-fi and fantasy creatives, as well as fans of their work. Readers and viewers can get close to the people who make the stories they love; and on the other end of it, creators who dedicate their lives to the business of making those stories can connect with one another and enjoy a bit of revelry.

While I was in Glasgow for Worldcon, I had the opportunity to interview none other than A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin about his long career and his relationship with fandom. Martin is insightful and has a borderline encyclopedic knowledge of genre history which he's happy to share, and speaking with him was an amazing experience. But that wasn't the only thing I did involving GRRM: after our convention ended, I also had the opportunity to attend a private screening of several short films he's produced based on the works of his friend and fellow author Howard Waldrop.

If you're not familiar with George R.R. Martin's Howard Waldrop short films, it's understandable. Martin has blogged about them before, but unless you attend short film festivals, there really isn't any way to watch them. I've been curious about these films for quite a while, ever since Martin announced the first one back in 2021, Night of the Cooters, which stars Vincent D'Onofrio as a wily sheriff in the old west who's trying to help his small town survive an alien invasion.

Little did I know, Cooters was only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Martin's Howard Waldrop films. To date, three of them have been finished: the Western Night of the Cooters, a Mad Maxian tractor pull saga called Mary Margaret Road-Grader, and The Ugly Chickens, which stars Felicia Day as an ornithologist who goes on a cross-country roadtrip around the United States in search of extinct dodos.

If you think that sounds like an eclectic grouping of subject matter, you'd be right. The short films are charming, often funny, and unfailingly quirky in a way that firmly honors Howard Waldrop's source material. Waldrop was a prolific writer and Martin's oldest friend in the science fiction community; the two began exchanging letters in high school and stayed in touch for decades. He was primarily known as a short fiction author; his works were nominated for numerous awards and even took home a few, such as the Nebula and World Fantasy Award.

Sadly, Waldrop passed away of a stroke in January 2024, at the age of 77. But in the years leading up to Waldrop's passing, Martin took it upon himself to make sure that several of the author's works made their way to the screen, self-financing all three movies and seeking out unconventional ways of bringing them to life which fit the tones of the stories.

Since these films aren't available to see outside of short film circuits, I'm not going to give you proper reviews or spoil any major plot details. Instead, I'm going to recount a bit of my impression of each, along with some interesting anecdotes Martin shared at the screening about how they were produced. At the end, we'll discuss the author's plans for these short films — and the ways you might, hopefully, be able to one day see them. Because they do deserve to be seen. Beyond the fact that the screening itself was fun, I had a wonderful time watching these short films. And one of them in particular has continued to pop up in my mind for weeks after seeing it, which is always a sign that a story hit just right.

Night of the Cooters

The very first Howard Waldrop story that Martin produced for film is Night of the Cooters, and it is by far the quirkiest, most ridiculous of the lot. Cooters is adapted from Waldrop's 1987 short story of the same name, which you can currently read for free online at Clarkesworld. Set in 1898, it's about how the digestionally challenged Sheriff Lindley (D'Onofrio) rallies the small Texas town of Pachuco City to fend off an alien invasion. The aliens are actual little green men and the tone of the film is very tongue-in-cheek, which feels just right.

Beyond its Wes Anderson-esque stylings, the thing that most fascinated me about Night of the Cooters is its visual style. Despite featuring live actors, this is an animated film. The entire thing was filmed in a gymnasium with green screen; Martin stressed that the only real assets on screen were the actors, horses, and a few props. The entire movie is overlayed with a sort of cartoonish filter, which lends it an otherwordly zaniness that's pretty charming. The visual effects were produced by a company called Trioscope, which is carving out a niche for itself as a leader in stylized digital film-making.

While Martin produced Night of the Cooters, he didn't write it (or any of the other short films). Instead, he hired Joe Lansdale to pen the screenplay. Howard Waldrop lived most of his life in Texas, and Cooters in particular captures a type of language and tone fit to the region's history. Lansdale is a Texas native who Martin said "speaks their strange language," which was particularly helpful in scripting the film.

There is one other fun fact about Night of the Cooters to share. Originally, it was slated to film in Camel Rock Studio in New Mexico, which is an old casino that was rebuilt into a state-of-the-art film studio. However, days before Cooters was due to film, Martin was informed they had lost the venue because of a double booking...to Dark Winds, a show Martin is producing for AMC based on the Leaphorn & Chee novels by Tony Hillerman. It turned out that the final paperwork for Cooters' booking never went through. But since Martin's short film production was being kicked out of the studio by his own AMC television production, he couldn't get too mad about it. That's what led to the film being shot in a gymnasium — though the extensive green screen was always part of the plan.

Mary Margaret Road-Grader

The second short film of the screening was Mary Margaret Road-Grader, and of the three, it was the most serious (though still plenty fun in its own way). It takes place in a Mad Maxian future where competitions for social standing are decided by tractor pull showdowns between souped-up vehicles and their pilots. Like Night of the Cooters, you can currently read Mary Margaret Road-Grader for free online, this time over at Strange Horizons.

This movie shares some DNA with Night of the Cooters — once again, most of what appears on screen was digitally created by Trioscope — but it's a huge step up production-wise in just about every way. Steven Paul Judd wrote and directed the film, which stars an all-Indigenous cast led by Crystle Lightning as the titular Mary Margaret Road-Grader and Martin Sensmeier as Billy-Bob Chevrolet. It has a score by Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi, and is generally a more intense, dangerous-feeling film. The basic set up is that Mary Margaret shows up to the tractor pulls, which are the domain of men, and throws her hat into the ring with the brag that she bested one of the most renowned drivers of the region. Not everyone takes too kindly to that, which leads to some exciting scenes.

Plus, there are the tractors. They're extremely cool, and feature a variety of fun aesthetic and mechanical flairs that make them memorable. (My favorite is one that has airplane engines attached to it to give it an extra kick during the pull.)

Mary Margaret Road-Grader also explores some beautiful themes about culture and the way it evolves. "I was born in 1946, and I've been getting published since 1969, and in all that time, I've been given three stories, ones that just came to me, from the Story Place, whole and unbidden. 'Mary Margaret Road-Grader' is one of them," Waldrop wrote in the author's note featured at Strange Horizons.

The movie very much honors that spirit. And Howard Waldrop even appears in a brief cameo. According to Martin, Waldrop's health was already in decline by the time Mary Margaret Road-Grader was filming. Fortunately, he was able to see a finished version of the movie only six days before he passed away.

The Ugly Chickens

The Ugly Chickens is the latest short film, which only locked its final cut around two weeks before I saw it in Glasgow. It made its premiere at this year's Hollyshorts festival and stars Felicia Day as Paula Linberl, an ornithology professor who goes on a cross-country road trip in search of the extinct Mauritius dodo. This was my personal favorite of the Howard Waldrop short films; it's delightful and quirky, and Day, as well as her co-stars Jennifer Dale, Natalie Charles, and Mag Ruffman, all turn in wonderful performances. It's based on Waldrop's 1981 Nebula and Wold Fantasy award-winning short story of the same name, which you can read online at SciFi.com.

The Ugly Chickens doesn't have any of the science fiction elements that are present in Night of the Cooters or Mary Margaret Road-Grader, though there are some pretty amazing puppets. This is a story set around the late 1970s/early 1980s in the United States, and it relies heavily on its cast to deliver. It also features all-real sets, which felt like a visual departure from Cooters or Road Grader that worked really well for this particular movie. The script is razor sharp, keeping the essence of Waldrop's story while cutting out just enough of the exposition to make it light and entertaining onscreen. It was just a great time, and I've caught myself wishing I could watch it again more than once.

The Ugly Chickens was helmed by Mark Raso, the director behind Copenhagen. Raso and Martin decided to do the movie together after Raso screened Copenhagen at Martin's movie theater in Santa Fe, the Jean Cocteau, and they got to talking afterward. "He made a beautiful film for us here," Martin said at the screening I attended, adding he was "very happy" with how it turned out.

How can you watch George R.R. Martin's Howard Waldrop short films?

So how can you watch these movies? Is there any plan for a wider release?

As of right now, Martin and his team are still figuring out exactly what the future of these Howard Waldrop short films will be. For the moment, they're playing exclusively in short film festival circuits — which is a necessity, because once they leave those and go into wider distribution ecosystems, it precludes them from many of those festivals and their relevant awards. Martin is hoping they'll get enough attention and possibly even major awards buzz at those festivals to drum up more interest and visibility.

Beyond short film festivals, Martin discussed a few different options for the future of these films. Some have their own individual potential. Martin revealed that Vincent D'Onofrio has expressed interest in doing more in the world of Night of the Cooters, possibly with Sheriff Lindley encountering different supernatural threats like werewolves. Of course, that would require making up new material, since Howard Waldrop only wrote the one Cooters story. The jury is out on whether Martin, Cooters screenwriter Joe Lansdale, or anyone else has the appetite to expand on Waldrop's work like that.

For Mary Margaret Road-Grader, Martin revealed that he's hoping it may end up with a similar trajectory to District 9, the 2009 science fiction movie from South African filmmaker Neill Blomkamp. That too started as a short film, titled Alive in Joburg, before being eventually being produced as a full-length feature. From the short film version of Mary Margaret that I saw, I could absolutely imagine how that could work.

Then there are options for the overall series of Waldrop short films. Martin said he had considered combining all three of the finished movies into an anthology show, similar to Love, Death & Robots, or even an anthology movie like Stephen King's Creepshow. Considering that I watched all three of these movies back-to-back, I can easily see them working well as an anthology series — especially since Martin has at least one other Waldrop short film in the works which could fit well with what's he's already produced.

As for where you'll be able to watch them...well, we'll have our ear to the ground for news. Martin was asked about the potential for them to go to streaming, but the key caveat there is locking down a deal with a network that would be a good home, has the interest, and is willing to pay enough for them for Martin to recoup some of the personal expense used to get the films made in the first place. Right now, both Mary Margaret Road-Grader and The Ugly Chickens are picking up steam, with multiple film festival bookings announced and more presumably on the way. So while they won't be on streaming anytime soon, who knows what the future holds?

One thing is for certain: Night of the Cooters, Mary Margaret Road-Grader, and The Ugly Chickens are all wonderful, fun films which beautifully honor the short fiction works of Howard Waldrop. Here's hoping that those "ugly chickens," tractor pulls, and little green men from outer space make their way to our screens one way or another in the not too distant future.

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