Jack Black and Eli Roth are teaming up to adapt the children’s book The House With a Clock in Its Walls, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
Amblin Entertainment picked up the rights to the book in April with Brad Fischer, James Vanderbilt and Eric Kripke producing. Kripke, who created the long-running CW show Supernatural, also wrote the script.
Roth will direct the adaptation of the 1973 gothic horror novel, written by John Bellairs with illustrations by Edward Gorey, which tells of a recently orphaned boy who moves in with this uncle. The uncle, it turns out, is a mediocre witch, and soon the boy finds himself in a world of magic and danger, especially when he discovers a clock inside the walls of his house that is designed to bring about doomsday. Black will star as the uncle.
William Sherak, Tracey Nyberg and Laeta Kalogridis are exec producing.
The deal keeps Roth, best known for his indie horror work, in the studio world after directing the Bruce Willis-starring remake of Death Wish for MGM.
Black next stars in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle with Dwayne Johnson.
