Watch the trailer for Jack Black and Cate Blanchett's 'House with a Clock in Its Walls'

Brian Truitt | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Jack Black, Cate Blanchett are magical in 'The House with a Clock in Its Walls' Jack Black stars as a warlock and Cate Blanchett is a good neighbor witch in the magical adventure 'The House With A Clock in Its Walls.'

The same week Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One comes out, we've got an exclusive peek at something else that's downright Spielbergian.

Here are the first photos and trailer for The House with a Clock in Its Walls (in theaters Sept. 21), horror director Eli Roth's new family-friendly magical adventure that stars Jack Black as a small-town warlock and Cate Blanchett as the witch next door.

Based on the 1973 children's book by author John Bellairs and illustrator Edward Gorey, and set in the mid-20th century, the heartfelt coming-of-age story casts Owen Vaccaro (Daddy's Home) as 10-year-old orphan Lewis Barnavelt, who comes to live with his uncle Jonathan (Black) in the older man's creaky old house.

However, it's no ordinary place: The building is a character in and of itself, with furniture, stained glass windows and other aspects that come to life as well as a mysterious tick-tocking heart at its center that has the power to end the world. When Lewis inadvertently wakens the dead, he begins to learn a lot more about the wondrous (and occasionally dangerous) world around him — including wand-waving neighbor Florence Zimmerman (Blanchett).

Written by Supernatural creator Eric Kripke, the film (from Spielberg's longtime production company Amblin Entertainment) also stars Twin Peaks icon Kyle McLachlan, '80s-movie stalwart Colleen Camp, Renée Elise Goldsberry (of Hamilton fame) and newcomers Vanessa Anne Williams and Sunny Suljic.