Eli Roth Adapting ‘The House With A Clock In Its Walls’ Book With Jack Black

Director Eli Roth is mostly known for his gruesome forays into the horror realm, giving audiences films like Cabin Fever, Hostel, and Green Inferno. The director will continue to dabble in the world of horror, but with his next project being an adaptation of the 1973 book The House with a Clock in Its Walls, he’ll be aiming to please younger fans of scary stories instead of fans of his R-rated fare. Goosebumps star Jack Black will be starring in the adaptation.

House with a Clock in Its Walls is the first installment of a 12-book series written by John Bellairs. When the author passed away in 1993, the series of books was continued by Brad Strickland. Many installments in the series featured illustrations by Edward Gorey.

This won’t be the first adaptation of the book, as it was the inspiration for segments on the 1979 anthology series Once Upon A Midnight Scary, which was hosted by Vincent Price.

Roth will be adapting the story for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, which often focuses more on family-friendly adventure films than gruesome horror films, having previously produced films like Arachnophobia, Jurassic World, and The BFG.

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The book itself focuses on a 10-year old who suddenly becomes orphaned, forcing him to move into his uncle’s house where he begins to discover a world of magic, mystery, and danger.

Thanks to the macabre mixture of humor and horror in 2003’s Cabin Fever, Roth became a burgeoning talent in the world of horror. Peter Jackson, who made gore-soaked films like Dead Alive and Bad Taste before creating the epic Lord of the Rings trilogies, was one of Roth’s biggest endorsers. The filmmaker continued to make a name for himself with Hostel, which followed a group of Americans on vacation in Europe who fall victim to tormentors willing to pay any price to act out their sadistic urges.

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The director’s recent horror outings, The Green Inferno and Knock Knock, didn’t resonate quite as strongly with fans, but he’ll be shifting genre gears for his upcoming remake of Death Wish, which stars Bruce Willis.

Black’s no stranger to family-friendly horror films, having starred as R.L. Stine in 2015’s Goosebumps film, which has a sequel on the way, aiming for a 2018 release. The film’s title was recently confirmed as Goosebumps: Horrorland, with Black reprising his role as the author in that film.