Lansdale was a contributing writer for
the Animated Series, credited with three episodes:
- "Perchance to Dream" (season 1, episode 26, aired October 29, 1992), in which the Mad Hatter creates a world where Thomas and Martha Wayne never died;
- "Read My Lips" (season 1, episode #59, aired May 10, 1993), which introduced The Ventriloquist to the show
- "Showdown" (season 4, episode 2, aired Sept 12, 1995) (featuring Jonah Hex and Ra's al Ghul) (sometimes cited as season 3, episode 12).
He also wrote "Identity Crisis", the episode which introduced Bizarro on
The Animated Series (season 2, episode #6, aired September 15, 1997), and
Critters (with Steve Gerber) for
The New Batman Adventures (sometimes referred to as
Batman: Gotham Knights, as on Lansdale's website; in syndication, the series is just more episodes of
Batman: The Animated Series - season 2, episode #2, aired September 19, 1998).
In 2010 he wrote the screenplay for the animated short DC Showcase: Jonah Hex. The brief standalone story features Hex tracking a bounty only to encounter a new adversary.
The most famous Lansdale adaptation was made in 2002 when Don Coscarelli adapted the novella
Bubba Ho-Tep for the big screen. The film featured persons who believe themselves to be Elvis Presley and John F. Kennedy, confined to an old-age rest home, teaming up to fight a mummy who is stealing their friends' souls.
The short story "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" was adapted for the first episode of the first season of Masters of Horror, also by Don Coscarelli. It aired on October 28, 2005. The short story "The Fat Man", has also been written into a screenplay by Neal Barrett Jr. for
Masters of Horror, but it is as yet unproduced.
Lansdale's story "The Job" was made into an eleven minute short in 1997 by A.W. Feidler. It is available on the out-of-print DVD collection, Short 5 - Diversity, on Warner Home Video. The short story "Drive-In Date" was filmed as a short by James Cahill, from a script written by Lansdale, published in
A Fist Full of Stories.
It has also been announced that Lansdale's 2002 novel
A Fine Dark Line will be made into a movie, which will be directed by Adam Friedman, with a screenplay written by Lansdale "hisownself."
A movie version of Lansdale's
Cold in July, directed by Jim Mickle and written by Mick Damici, is in the works.