Important news! Jack Black has discovered time travel, warped back to 1926 and written a book all about his adventures journeying around America. Or not. But there was a Jack Black at the time, he did write an autobiographical novel called You Can’t Win about his travels, and now Boardwalk Empire’s Michael Pitt has made a deal to star in and produce a film based on the tome.
Black’s bestseller chronicles his experiences in the tramp underworld of the time, hopping freight trains to journey around the US and Canada way back when. Among his themes are crime, justice, addiction and human foibles.
Pitt has teamed up with Zoo director Robinson Devor for the movie, and the pair worked on the script along with Barry Gifford and Charles Mudede. They’ve drummed up a thrifty budget to get the film made and will start shooting later this month in Seattle.
Pitt, who is probably best known for the likes of Murder By Numbers, Hedwig And The Angry Inch and The Dreamers, has spent the last couple of years of his career acting on Terence Winter’s HBO show about prohibition era gangsters battling to control the alcohol trade in and around Atlantic City. But with this new project, it appears he’ll be firmly back on the big screen.