Jack Black as Lemuel Gulliver in Gulliver's Travels.
Lemuel Gulliver (Jack Black) is a lowly mailroom clerk at a New York newspaper. After Gulliver bluffs his way into an assignment writing about the Bermuda Triangle, he goes there only to be transported to an undiscovered land, Lilliput. In this fantastical new world, Gulliver is, at last, a bigger-than-life figure — in size and ego – especially after he starts telling tall tales, taking credit for his world’s greatest inventions, and placing himself at the center of its most historic events.
Gulliver’s position is enhanced even further when he leads his new friends in a daring battle against their longtime enemies. But when Gulliver loses it all and puts the Lilliputians in peril, he must find a way to undo the damage. Ultimately, Gulliver becomes a true giant among men only when he learns that it’s how big you are on the inside that counts.
Lemuel Gulliver (Jack Black) has been working in the mailroom of a big publishing company in Manhattan, New York for ten years. He has a crush for the editor for travel stories Darcy Silverman (Amanda Peet) and unintentionally applies for a travel writing job when he tries to ask her out on a date. Through cut and paste from websites like Frommers and Time Out, Gulliver manages to impress Darcy and is sent to Bermuda as Darcy knows a man who knows the secret of the Bermuda Triangle. Gulliver who has never operated a boat before, take a boat out to find the mysterious Bermuda Triangle. Gulliver then encounters a heavy storm and ends up ashore on a beach in a land called Lilliput.
Long story cuts short, Gulliver is tied up by the Lilliputians, led by General Edward (Chris O’Dowd) and is shortly being referred as ‘The Beast’. However, after saving Princess Mary (Emily Blunt) from the kidnappers and Lilliput’s King Theodore (Billy Connolly) from a fire by urinating on the castle, Gulliver is suddenly being regard as Lilliput’s hero.
Jack Black as Lemuel Gulliver in Gulliver's Travels.
About the Production
This new incarnation of “Gulliver’s Travels” began with a call from producer John Davis to Jack Black. Shortly thereafter, Black was aboard as the titular hero and as an executive producer on the project. “I jumped at the chance to be a part of this,” says Black. “It was irresistible: Me… Gulliver… traveling…. being a giant in another world. The elements were all there to make a big movie.”
When Jonathan Swift penned his novel in the 18th century, the world hadn’t yet been fully explored, so the idea of an island populated by tiny people didn’t seem that far-fetched. Black, Davis, director Rob Letterman, co-screenwriter Joe Stillman (“Shrek”) and co-producer (and Davis Entertainment executive) Brian Manis endeavored to make the story relevant and fun for contemporary audiences. They briefly considered setting Gulliver’s adventure on a distant planet before deciding to have Gulliver travel through an “inter-dimensional portal” – not to a distant planet but to an alternate world that juxtaposed modern-day and old-school sensibilities. “One of our principal goals was that audiences would always believe in Lilliput,” says John Davis. “We wanted to put you right there with Gulliver.”
Bringing in director Rob Letterman was an important step in bringing a fun sense of verisimilitude to Gulliver’s adventures in Lilliput. Previously, Letterman had examined the interactions of a newly-super-sized character with her new environment and friends in the blockbuster 3D animated feature “Monsters vs Aliens,” so he was a perfect fit for “Gulliver’s Travels”. But Letterman, Black, Davis and the screenwriters –Nicholas Stoller (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”) had joined the team to do additional work on the script – faced some daunting new questions about Gulliver and his world, such as: Do the Lilliputians have to shout at Gulliver to be heard? If so, how do you keep that from looking and sounding peculiar on screen?
As they devised solutions to these challenges, the focus remained on Gulliver’s journey and character arc. When we meet Black’s Lemuel Gulliver, he is a small man in a big pond — the monstrous canyons of Manhattan, where he toils in a clerical position at a newspaper. He talks a big game, but he’s achieved very little because he is always afraid he will fail. “Gulliver dreams of becoming a travel writer – he’s always aspiring for something bigger and better,” says Black. “But he doesn’t have the courage to put himself out there. Fear is his obstacle. But once he gets to Lilliput, he’s like a king.” Echoes Rob Letterman: “In New York, Gulliver feels really small and wants to do big things, but he’s afraid to make it happen. When he lands in Lilliput, he starts to feel really big, but it’s a feeling based on false pretenses.”
After a rough start with the Lilliputians that sees Gulliver tied up and wheeled through the Town Square, then outfitted with a pulley system through which the Lilluput leaders control his every move, Gulliver begins to win over his captors. He impresses the Lilliputians by mounting productions of his life story, including his adventures vanquishing Darth Vader, surviving an icy near-death experience in the frozen Atlantic after the sinking of the Titanic, and leading the world in his capacity as President the Awesome (his VP is Yoda). Gulliver even helps a commoner (Jason Segel) woo a princess (Emily Blunt) – employing, as Gulliver calls it, some “grade-A court-age” – and singlehandedly defeats an armada of the Lilliputians’ arch-nemeses, the Blefuscians.
Through all of Gulliver’s tall tales and reluctant heroic displays, Jack Black makes the character likable and childlike, bringing his signature energy and humor to every scene. “Jack is the epicenter of the film,” says Rob Letterman. Adds executive producer Benjamin Cooley: “Jack brings an innocence to Gulliver; there’s something in his eyes that’s both endearing and edgy. He’s like a big child in the film.” Black’s unique and comic sensibilities are counterbalanced by those of his co-stars, including Jason Segel, as Horatio, Emily Blunt as Princess Mary, Amanda Peet as Darcy Silverman, Billy Connolly as King Theodore, Chris O’Dowd as the traitorous General Edward, and Catherine Tate as Queen Isabelle.
It is Gulliver’s attempts to trick travel editor Darcy that sets in motion his epic adventure among the Lilliputians. He cons Darcy, for whom he has unrequited romantic feelings, into a choice writing assignment that takes him to the Bermuda Triangle and beyond – way beyond – to Lilliput. When Gulliver washes ashore this strange new world, among the first he meets is General Edward Edwardian, the commander of the Lilliput army. Edward’s distrust of the gargantuan creature – Gulliver – that has suddenly appeared in Lilliput, as well as the general’s ambitions, leads him to take Gulliver prisoner. But his tactics backfire when Gulliver becomes the new (Really) Big Man on Campus, and takes Edward’s place as commander. “When Gulliver lands itself on Edward’s shore, Edward’s world is thrown into turmoil, and he goes to the dark side,” says Chris O’Dowd. “Edward is incredibly pompous and full of ceremony, and believes that things must have a certain order. He is very disappointed that everyone gets in line with Gulliver.”
Starring: Jack Black, Emily Blunt, Jason Segel, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly
Directed by: Rob Letterman
Screenplay by: Joe Stillman, Nick Stoller, Jonathan Swift
Release Date: December 25, 2010
MPAA Rating: PG for brief rude humor, mild language and action.
Box Office: $42,599,183 (US total)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
