Jack Black leads Fox's GULLIVER'S TRAVELS

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

Jack Black has landed his biggest role to date. He will play the sizable title role in a new 20th Century Fox adaptation of GULLIVER'S TRAVELS which is now being fast tracked for a March start date. The famous 1726 Jonathan Swift will get the "contemporary treatment" and will now follow Lemuel Gulliver, a free-spirited travel writer whose visit to the Bermuda Triangle bizarrely sees him end up as a giant among men when he washes up on the mystery island of Lilliput, home of little but industrious men. Rob Letterman (SHARK TALE, MONSTERS & ALIENS) will direct from a screenplay by Nichollas Stoller (FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL) and Joe Stillman (SHREK) according to Variety. Hollywood has been making movies based on GULLIVER'S TRAVELS since 1939, when The Fleischer Brothers made a Academy Award nominated cel-animated rotoscoped version seen as Paramount Picture's answer to Disney's huge success SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. More recently, I was quite fond of a mid 90's t.v. series starring Ted Danson.

With Black on board and a comedic writing/directing team, one would expect a studio comedy version of this classic tale which often delved into many dark themes.